TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Patients at Moffitt Cancer Center are getting an experience that\u2019s usually reserved for presidents and world leaders. One of their volunteers once played music for presidents. Now, he\u2019s playing for patients.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
One of the volunteers at Moffitt Cancer Center, Bob Boguslaw, once played piano for presidents.\u00a0Now, he\u2019s playing for patients.
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Bob Boguslaw is a now-retired member of the president\u2019s own United States Marine Band
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He said he played 22 years for a total of four presidents and countless world leaders
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Boguslaw\u00a0plays for patients once a week, starting his day in the main lobby, and then he gets to visit rooms and play the piano for people<\/p>\n
Bob Boguslaw is a now-retired member of the president\u2019s own United States Marine Band. He said he played 22 years for a total of four presidents and countless world leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably my second or third job with the Marine Band was in the private residence and George H.W. Bush, which is when I got the job in 1991, was hosting Mikhail Gorbachev,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He recently retired to the Tampa Bay area and wanted to volunteer. Boguslaw said cancer has directly impacted his own family, so when the opportunity came to play for patients at Moffitt Cancer Center, the choice was clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very gratifying to bring music to people that are in these challenged health situations. I find that as rewarding as any solo I\u2019ve ever played or any CD that I\u2019ve ever recorded on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He talked more about his time playing at the White House. It\u2019s an experience that sometimes seemed like the best soundtrack for his favorite movie.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll four presidents that I played for, two Bushes, President Clinton and President Obama, were never anything but gracious and welcoming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an experience that sometimes seemed like the best soundtrack for his favorite movie.<\/p>\n
\u201cStevie Wonder sat in with me and sang a song which was absolutely a career peak, but I think the most rewarding single event would have to be President Obama\u2019s first inauguration,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think President Obama would actually show up, but he loves jazz. But he showed up about 1:30 and tapped me on the shoulder and said, I didn\u2019t know Marines played this kind of music. Because I was playing jazz, and I said, \u2018Well we play whatever you want, Mr. President.\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n
He plays for patients once a week, starting his day in the main lobby and then he gets to visit rooms and play the piano for people, just as impactful as a president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Patients at Moffitt Cancer Center are getting an experience that\u2019s usually reserved for presidents and world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1011,28,276,115,4368,135,137,136,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-132930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-hillsborough-county","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-saundra-weathers","13":"tag-tampa","14":"tag-tampa-headlines","15":"tag-tampa-news","16":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}