SYDNEY, N.S. -- Many Maritime musicians are using their talents to entertain others online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now some Cape Breton performers have kicked their efforts up a notch by raising money for those in need.

Jenn Sheppard, Stephen Muise and Jordan Crocker have been performing together for years, but never in an online setting like this.

Thursday night is usually what they call ‘Garbage Night’, a night of casual jamming in their living room. But now it has turned into a good old Cape Breton kitchen party, everyone can attend.

“When COVID-19 started, somebody joked and said, you should put a garbage night online, which we’ve joked about doing for a while,” says Jenn Sheppard. “So we thought we would, and we thought if we get anybody to view in, why don’t we use that to do some good.”

The live streams have been a hit on social media, averaging an online audience of between 800-900 people a night.

“We’re having so much fun doing it, we’ve been able to support three great causes so far,” says Stephen Muise. “Jordan is graduating this year from high school, so the first week we donated to the Grads of 2020, the second week we donated to palliative care, and the third week was the one that we took off, and that was iPads for seniors.”

The goal was to raise enough to purchase a few, but with the help of businesses and the community, more than $10,000 has been raised to purchase iPads for seniors, so they can connect with their families during a time when many have to be apart.

“There are seniors who are passing away in homes, who are completely isolated, and can’t have family members with them. Nobody is there to hold their hand, at least if they have an iPad where family members are able to see, and hear their loved ones in their time of need, if we can fix that lets do it,” says Sheppard.

The trio feels that they can raise even more money for the cause.

“This week we’ve decided to rerun our cause, Katherine is jumping on board, we are going to challenge businesses and people to donate against each other, to see if we can raise the total as high as we can.”

Putting their talents to good use during uncertain times, to helping those who need it most.