Don't forget seniors during this upcoming holiday season
Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2008
ROGERS During the next few weeks, area residents will have an opportunity to help senior citizens who might otherwise be overlooked this holiday season.
Home Instead Senior Care is joining with many seniorliving communities, seniorservices organizations and community volunteers in the Be a Santa to a Senior program.
In the last four years, the campaign has delivered more than 330 gifts to needy or isolated seniors in northwest Arkansas.
Be a Santa to a Senior each year sets new records in contributions of gifts to a group that often is forgotten during the hectic holiday season, said Kristine Stanley, owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office serving the region. While children are the beneficiaries of many holiday programs, people often dont think about the isolated and lonely seniors who need to be remembered as well during this season.
Be a Santa to a Senior also is designed to help stimulate human contact and social interaction for older adults who are unlikely to have guests during the holidays, she added.
The program runs from Nov. 3 through Dec. 15. Prior to the holiday season, participating nonprofit organizations will identify needy and isolated seniors in the community and provide those names to Home Instead. A Christmas tree, which was to go up in Frisco Station Mall in Rogers on Nov. 17, will feature ornaments with the first names only of the seniors and their respective gift requests.
Holiday shoppers can pick up an ornament, buy items on the list, then drop off the unwrapped gifts at the mall. The ornament should be attached to the gifts.
Home Instead enlists the help of its staff, community senior-care associates, nonprofit workers and community volunteers to collect, wrap and deliver the gifts to the seniors. A community gift-wrapping day, when hundreds of the presents will be wrapped, will be Dec. 10 at the Home Instead Senior Care office in Frisco Station Mall. Anyone wishing to help may come anytime between 9: 30 a. m. and 3: 30 p. m.
Norman, 86, is one area senior who last year benefited from Be a Santa to a Senior. Norman lives alone and can no longer drive, and his family lives out of state, so having a gift-bearing visitor during the holidays was quite a treat.
Be a Santa to a Senior is a fulfilling way to say thanks to those older adults who have helped build our community, Stanley said. Our hope is that many will be touched by this holiday gesture of goodwill.
Anyone interested in volunteering to help should contact Kristine Stanley at 936-9885.
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