LOGAN, Utah — Bagpipers in the United States and Canada, along with those anywhere in the world, untied to play "Amazing Grace" on Easter Sunday to show solidarity for those suffering from COVID-19 and to show support of health care workers around the world.
Sixteen-year-old Owen Lambert has been playing the bagpipes since he was just eight. He joined in on the action from his front steps in Logan, Utah attracting a small but distant crowd of neighbors at noon, when all the bagpipers were to play.
"All pipers know the tune Amazing Grace and its story of courage and transcendence under adversity. The sound of this hymn played by hundreds of individual bagpipers in my city, in Canada, the USA and around the world would be a great gesture in our collective global struggle against Coronavirus," wrote Donald Macdonald from the Sons of Scotland Pipe Band in Ottawa Canada.
After playing on his porch at noon, Owen went around the neighborhood playing at a retirement community, Heritage Cove, and then at some neighbors’ houses, each of whom had hard things happening in their lives or were just lonely.
"It felt very special, like an open-air church service," says Owen's mother Brooke Lambert. She says another piper could be heard in the distance playing along with her son.