Piano donated to Eastern Health Box Hill brings joy to patients and visitors

On World Kindness Day (13 November), Eastern Health unveiled a new piano located in the Box Hill campus’ atrium.

The piano was donated to Eastern Health Box Hill by Managing Director of Bernies Music Land, Bernie Capicchiano after hearing the story that scammers were trying to deceive Eastern Health and the Hush Foundation.

“When I first came to Eastern Health Box Hill, I met Christine. I said ‘okay Christine, what are we going to do?’ And she said we want to not only involve the staff here, but people in the community

“After looking around the hospital I said number one, you’ve got a wonderful space here to use. And number two, we can’t put an old piano here. We had this wonderful piano, with its own history. It’s designed by a good personal friend of mine. It won awards internationally for its design…and I was very fortunate to have it available. And I’m very honoured to present it to Eastern Health,” he said.

Mr Capicchiano was joined by Box Hill Site Director, Christine Lamotte and Hush Foundation Chair and Founder, Professor Catherine Crock AM to officially launch the unveiling.

“This act of kindness is not like those that sometimes go unnoticed by others other than the recipient. This is an act that will have lasting effects for many years.

“As we make use of this piano by having it available to staff, patients and visitors to play, the effect of this music will touch many people…It is our vision that the piano will be available for anyone to play,” Ms Lamotte said.

Initially conceived by the Hush Foundation, this donation will be gratefully received by staff, patients and visitors to our largest hospital.

“At the Hush Foundation, we’re not only talking about being nice, we actually realise that this is a safety imperative for us in our workplaces, and for the patients and families we look after. If we are treating each other with kindness and respect in the workplace, our teams function so much better. We’ve got the bandwidth to do the difficult work that we might come up against,” Prof Crock said.

The official launch was capped off with a musical performance by Eastern Health physiotherapist Judy Bottrell, who played “Clair de Lune” by Debussy and “To Spring” by Grieg.

The Hush Foundation aims to transform the culture of health care through the arts.

Take a look at some event highlights below.