The festive time of year is almost here, and you have a chance to make a senior’s holiday season a little more jolly.
The Secret Santa for a Senior program aims to provide Christmas gifts to seniors in facilities in the community.
Donna Grieve of Stonewall was inspired to launch the program after her sister started something similar in Alberta. This year, about 220 local seniors will receive a gift through the heart-warming initiative.
Currently, about 70 more Secret Santas are in demand to cover all the seniors participating in the program.
“People can help by sponsoring one or more seniors — or if they prefer to make a monetary donation, I will do the shopping for them,” Grieve said.
“This year, I have already received two generous cash donations, one from Interlake Salvage and the other prefers to remain anonymous. Private and corporate donations are always welcome. I encourage business owners or managers to ask their staff if they would each like to sponsor a senior as a group Christmas initiative.”
The types of gifts differ depending on the facility, she added.
“Typically, we like to include unscented lotions and body wash, blankets, manicure kits, a small Christmas ornament or picture books,” she said, adding that elementary school children make cards to accompany the gifts.
“One thing that has changed from previous years is that many of the facilities have provided me with wish lists from each senior. This helps us to tailor their gifts to include items they need rather than our Secret Santas choosing items from a generic list. Other facilities simply said their seniors would be happy with anything.”
For Grieve, it’s important to support seniors at Christmas time.
“For many, Christmas is all about children, but we cannot forget that many seniors have outlived their family members or have no family nearby and would otherwise not receive any gifts at all,” she said. “My goal is to help make sure that our seniors receive something to open.”
She has already started to assign seniors to their Secret Santas. The deadline to turn in gifts is Nov. 27, which will give Grieve and her team of volunteers enough time to inspect and organize the gifts before distributing them.
The sweet gesture brightens the spirits of seniors, which in turn brings joy to Grieve.
“The smiles on their faces is all the reward I ever needed,” she said.
She also expressed gratitude for everyone involved in making the initiative a success year after year.
“I would like to thank the community for stepping up and helping to make this mission possible,” she said.
“I can’t take all the credit since my program would not be possible without the generous contributions from everyone that participates — seven years strong and still going.”
Anyone who would like to get involved can join the Secret Santa for Seniors Facebook group and sign up to become a sponsor or simply help with delivering or distributing gifts at a facility.
