KIND-HEARTED choir members spread Christmas cheer across Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch by delivering ‘Random Acts of Choirness’.

More than 100 singers from the Funky Little Choir spent Saturday paying surprise visits to people in care homes and hospitals. They even performed a very intimate concert in a person’s living room and for a young couple in Poole Park.

Sandie Campbell, director of the Funky Little Choir, came up with the idea to brighten up the day of the deserving audience members.

Earlier this year, she received around 50 nominations from the public asking for a surprise performance for a friend, relative or colleague.

The nominees ranged from people who have had a great sadness in their life or faced adversity, to those who simply had partners wishing to express their love.

Travelling to each of the 12 destinations by coach, the choir started their day singing for the Pink Champagne Breast Cancer Survivors Dragonboat Team in the Hungry Hiker Café and their supporter, Robert from Precise Sheetmetal Engineering.

As well as performances from the adult choir, members of the children’s choir also sang for nominees in two teams.

Among the locations the choir visited were Forest Holme Hospice, Primrose Lodge nursing home, the A&E department and stroke ward at Royal Bournemouth Hospital, and Fisherman’s Walk in Southbourne.

Videos of the performances were shared across social media with the hashtag #randomactsofchoirness.

Choir member Lorna Rees said: “Having 80 people singing to you can be a bit overwhelming, a bit special and, hopefully, more than a bit lovely. There were plenty of emotional tears throughout the day from both the people being sung to and the choir themselves.”

Sandie set up the Funky Little Choir in 2007, and it is now the largest contemporary choir in Dorset.

The choir were featured on Gareth Malone’s Best in Britain BBC 2 series and are frequently seen performing in the local area.

Sandie said she came up with the idea for Random Acts of Choirness a couple of years ago.
“This year, I thought ‘right, I’m going to do this’,” she said. 

“We had around 50 nominations, and we managed to do 12 locations on the day. It was really hard to choose as every nomination had value, but we had to be logistical. We wanted a variety of ‘thank yous’, ‘love yous’ and people who have had a sadness in their lives.

“It was a lovely experience surprising people, but my favourite performance was for the A&E ward. The hospital shared a video of us on Twitter which had 3,000 views.”

She added: “I will 100 per cent do this again. It was a mad thing to organise but everyone loved it.”

The choir meets on Monday nights in Christchurch and Thursday nights in Bournemouth.