Lori Elder was sitting on a piano bench listening to a student during a lesson when it occurred to her that she could create a cookbook to celebrate 20 years of teaching piano in Prince George.
She's combining her cooking and baking passion to honour her musical passion and then the sales of the book will be distributed to charities in Prince George.
"I needed to do something to celebrate," said Elder.
The launch event on Nov. 2 at St. Andrew's United Church, at 3555 Fifth Ave. between 2 and 4 p.m., will showcase the recipe book and a CD featuring students' favourites. Proceeds from that will be specifically used to buy what she called a street piano for the BC Cancer Agency Centre for the North. If she's lucky enough to get a piano donated to her, she will use the funds to refurbish and repair, tune, paint and move the piano to its destination, she added.
There is a popular trend sweeping the world where refurbished pianos are now repaired and usually painted in bright patterns, offering a festival-like atmosphere to entice people to sit down and plink out a tune on street corners, in bus stations and any public gathering place.
Right now Kordyban Lodge, where patients and their caregivers stay in Prince George when they travel for treatment, has a piano in its lobby but the treatment centre only has an electric keyboard. Elder thought it would be nice to have a musical outlet for patients there, too.
"These pianos bring joy wherever they are, and certainly a cancer centre can benefit from that," said Elder. "This is a global trend and I want Prince George to be on board."
It took Elder more than a year to gather the recipes for the Students' Favourites Cookbook featuring family favourites and produce the Students' Favourites CD, using local resources whenever possible, she said.
Elder is determined to achieve her goal.
"I've promised them a piano, so they are going to get one," said Elder, who hopes this will be accomplished in the spring.
The launch will offer the cookbook and CD for sale, as well as entertainment provided by her students who will perform during the event.
