Does your organization have plans to help those in need this holiday season? For example, are you planning to deliver toys or other presents to children? Food for Christmas dinners? And do you need donations or volunteer help from the community to carry out your plans? If so, post your activity and what you need in this forum, so you can share your needs with the community. We will be running posts from groups on Page 2B in the N&O's City & State section until Christmas. Please be specific and include contact information, such as a phone number and an email address.
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Santa for Seniors
A local company is sponsoring a special holiday campaign designed to brighten the lives of hundreds of local seniors. Home Instead Senior Care has teamed up with local community organizations, retailers and volunteers to collect, wrap and donate gifts to needy or lonely seniors in Durham and Raleigh. This year’s campaign will focus on isolated seniors, some of whom are among this nation’s “elder orphans.” We see older adults who have no one during this festive season and that makes for a very sad and lonely time,” said David and Bonnie Thommarson, owners of the Home Instead Senior Care office in Durham. “Whether they are in a nursing home or in their own homes, where more are choosing to stay, it’s important to reach out to isolated older adults during this special time of the year.”
According to an article in the Geriatric Times (http://www.cmellc.com/geriatrictimes/), the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) has estimated that as many as 60 percent of nursing-home residents receive no regular visitors. That’s what makes Home Instead Senior Care’s Be a Santa to a Senior program such a boost for older adults during the holidays. The campaign has become the largest gift-giving project of its kind for older adults.
Here’s how the program, which runs from Nov. 19 through Dec. 12, works: Prior to the holiday season, the participating local non-profit organizations will identify needy, orphaned and isolated seniors in the community and provide those names to Home Instead Senior Care. Christmas trees, which will go up in Wal-Mart at 5450 New Hope Commons, Upchurch Drugs at 5108 N. Roxboro Street and Walgreens at 6405 Fayetteville Road in Durham, and Kerr Drug at 8385 Creedmoor Road and Wal-Mart at 1725 New Hope Church Road in Raleigh on November 19 will feature ornaments with the first names only of the needy seniors and their respective gift requests.
Holiday shoppers can pick up an ornament card, buy items on the list and return them unwrapped to the store, along with the senior ornament card attached. Home Instead Senior Care then enlists the volunteer help of its staff, senior-care business associates, non-profit workers and others to collect, wrap and distribute the gifts to these seniors.
In 2006, 196,500 lonely, needy seniors across North America received 312,500 gifts through this program. Moreover, 21,000 volunteers supported Santa during last year’s holiday season, with 1,500 locations across North America hosting a tree.
“Be a Santa to a Senior is an annual holiday tradition that is changing the way many view the needs of seniors during the holidays,” Thommarson said. “We hope that the community will support our efforts as a way of giving back to the seniors in our area who have given us so much.” Businesses are encouraged to contact the local Home Instead Senior Care office at 919-479-4600 about adopting groups of seniors.