Ann Arbor Woman Helps Give Veterans Recreation

THE WAR IS NEVER OVER FOR THE RED CROSS: ANN ARBOR WOMAN HELPS GIVE VETERANS RECREATION Injured men who show no interest in any other recreation offered at Percy Jones hospital often respond to music played in the wards. Mrs. George F. Muehlig, 1052 Baldwin Ave., above, an accomplished accordion player, has achieved remarkable results in the rehabilitation and readjustment of servicemen spending weary hours away from home in a hospital ward. A graduate of the University School of Music as a piano major, in 1910, Mrs. Muehlig learned to play the accordion as a hobby. She has performed for many local organizations, and entertained many invalids. As a Red Cross volunteer, she now devotes one day a week to our wounded men at Percy Jones hospital in Battle Creek. The accordion, being portable, lends itself particularly well to use in hospital wards. But since there is no way to carry sheet music around, Mrs. Muehlig has to memorize everything she plays, and she has done her own arranging from simple folk tunes and hymns to the difficult classics. Surrounded each week by patients in wheel chairs, on crutches or lying in bed, Mrs. Muehlig has had to have a repertoire of hundreds of tunes to meet their requests, and is constantly learning new songs at home. The men ask for everything from hill-billy music to grand opera, and a wounded man in one bed will ask for a lively tune like Nola, while the patient next to him will ask for a Brahms lullaby immediately afterwards. Mrs. Muehlig has collected costumes for various holidays and wears them in the wards on these occasions. Furnishing recreation and home comforts are part of the program of the Red Cross Camp and Hospital Committee. The local committee, under the chairmanship of Mrs. John S. Worley, serves Percy Jones hospitals at Battle Creek and Fort Custer, and Veterans Facility at Fort Custer. Making life a little more pleasant for the wounded men in hospitals is a nation-wide Red Cross project. Ann Arbor is asked to contribute $48,460 during the campaign for funds in March to continue services to our veterans and to maintain other Red Cross programs.