SASKATOON -- La Ronge singer/songwriter Dara Schindelka is releasing a song she wrote while quarantined with COVID-19.

Her new single, called The Covid Christmas, will be available on Friday across radio and streaming platforms.

Schindelka is a music and arts education teacher at the public school in La Ronge. She said that’s where she contracted COVID-19 last month.

She said self-isolating and being away from her family, friends and work was difficult.

“For a people person, that’s tough, but for a musician, that kind of gave way to processing it through music,” said Schindelka.

She didn’t write the song with the intention of recording and releasing it. Then, she thought it would provide a positive outlook for people during the pandemic.

“This holiday season is going to happen, and we can embrace it or we can look for all of those negative things that are very easy to see in our world around us and so I thought, you know what, let’s have a lighthearted kind of theme to this song, ” said Schindelka.

“I was actually really down at the time, but this song helped bring me up,” she said in a news release.

She described the song as upbeat and humorous, with a similar sound to Jingle Bell Rock.

The song is in collaboration with her brother, Joel Schindelka, as well as Kristopher Craig and Ben Rose. It was recorded at Blue Door Studio in Regina.