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In the ’80s, Judy Deggeller and some friends took their guitars to sing Christmas songs at a facility for older people with mental illnesses.
“The residents were polite, but when we finished they said, ‘don’t you know any songs that aren’t about Christmas?’” Deggeller said, laughing. “What they really wanted to hear was, ‘Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me.’”
For the next hour and a half they played and sang along with residents. Deggeller noticed a man with his head almost resting on his dinner tray, and she thought he might want to sleep instead of listening to the music.
But during their last song, his blanket fell away from his feet, and she saw he was tapping to the beat of the music. That’s when she knew she wanted to create a program for health facilities involving music and exercise.
Since Deggeller began living in Palo Alto approximately 60 years ago, she has used her passion for music and altruism to give back to the community.
Her published work, “Mind your Moves,” was a comprehensive guide to using music to stay active, especially for older adults. The tape, which was released before the advent of CDs, Deggeller said, is still used in facilities across the country.
Deggeller plays piano and guitar and says music has always been a driving force in her life. She began lessons when she was only five.
In the late ’80s, Deggeller searched for an organization that might benefit from an on-site music program. That’s when she began teaching music theory in culmination with math at the Girls Club in East Palo Alto. She worked with four girls for nearly three years.
“We had so much fun that the program spilled over into outings to museums and visits to the beach,” Deggeller said. “And when they went off to high school, I began working with the next generation of girls with Girls to Women, another program in East Palo Alto.”
The next group was in elementary school and hadn’t had much experience with music at all. But Deggeller remembers one girl went on to buy a piano and continue playing.
Aside from music, Deggeller was vice president of manufacturing at a precision sheet metal company. Her boss, who had a passion for children’s literacy, sold the company and founded the Bring me a Book program in 1997, where Deggeller served as the first board member.
For 20 years she helped run the organization that provided free books to under-resourced communities in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
More recently, Deggeller cooked and distributed meals for older people who lived alone and couldn’t get groceries throughout the pandemic.
“After cooking for over 50 years, I decided I was through with that,” Deggeller said. “So our meals had gotten a lot simpler. But when I started cooking for others, I had to up the bar.”
Within six weeks, people enjoyed the food so much they suggested that Deggeller make a cookbook.
“It was the last thing I wanted to do, at first,” she said. “But then I read that the Ecumenical Hunger Program in East Palo Alto was experiencing heavy demands on their food program.”
So she wrote a small cookbook, published it and sold it to people she knew. In less than three months she raised $27,000 and donated the entire proceeds to the program.
Now, Deggeller works at the Rosalie Rendu Center in East Palo Alto helping Spanish-speakers learn English through casual and non-judgemental conversation.
While Deggeller has worked with countless people in her community, she said she is more of an introvert who likes to keep behind the scenes.
“I’m driven by wanting to help people, and that path has defined my life, whether it be friends, family or strangers,” she said. “I see things that could be done to better a situation, then set out on my own to make that happen.
No matter what skills or passions someone brings to the table, Deggeller said, there are many ways to help people. It could be as simple as a phone call to a lonely friend.