It’s about to be that time of year again. The festivities of decking the halls, singing Christmas carols and drinking eggnog are just around the corner. We always think about children and their reaction to Santa’s presents on Christmas day, but what about the senior citizens in nursing homes who have no family to celebrate the holidays with. Thanks to Home Instead Senior Care, a non medical senior companion program, everyone can have a happy holiday.

Last year, Lee County’s Home Instead started the program Be A Santa to A Senior, a program run nationally for the past five years, to provide senior citizens in nursing homes with gifts given by the community to open on Christmas day. Over 300 seniors around Lee, Russell and Chambers counties will have the opportunity to receive gifts at Christmas time.

Nurses ask seniors what they want for Christmas and place the wish on an ornament that can be found in nine under the tree locations, including Colonial Mall, Kroger and Bruno’s grocery stores, Curves for Women and Penny Profits Cleaners to name a few. Participants can purchase gifts mentioned on the ornament and then return them, unwrapped, to collection boxes located next to the tree where the ornament was retrieved.

All collection boxes will be picked up on Dec. 12 and transported to the Health Resource Center across from the East Alabama Medical Clinic for a wrapping party that will take place on Dec.15. All members of the community are invited to come and volunteer at this event as well as help distribute the gifts to the surrounding counties from Dec. 16 through Dec. 19.

Over the past four years, Home Instead has delivered over 930,000 gifts to over half a million seniors nationally. Last year, in Auburn alone, they delivered over 700 gifts to 225 seniors. This year, the Be A Santa to A Senior program wishes to reach 400 seniors in the Auburn-Opelika area.

Bridget Jones, owner of Home Instead Senior Care, acknowledges that hundreds of individuals get involved with the project each year. Home Instead is always looking for and open to volunteers to help during the holiday season, especially with the wrapping and delivering of the gifts.

Amanda Zambrano, a senior at Auburn University, has been working with Home Instead for the past couple of months and recognizes the efforts that benefit all surrounding communities. “It’s incredible how the whole community gets involved,” she says.

Jones has benefited from being involved with the program from beginning to end. “It’s great to bring awareness to the community about forgotten seniors and remind them that they deserve a Christmas just like any child should,” she says.

Whether it be clothes, cologne or a Kenny Rogers CD, everyone deserves a warm holiday season. For more information on how to get involved with the Be A Santa to A Senior program, please contact Bridget Jones at bridgetjones@homeinstead.com or visit their website at www.homeinstead.com.



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