Be a Santa to a Senior is like Toys for Tots for the elderly — just replace the toys part with gifts that are more along the lines of personal comfort items, like slippers, blankets and photo albums.
Home Instead Senior Care Central New Hampshire co-owner Frank Byrne said this is the ninth year Home Instead has been participating in the Be a Santa to a Senior program out of the Manchester office.
“For us, we know it’s a way we can bring a little holiday cheer to folks who may not get it otherwise. We have partnered with businesses and schools, and we collect the gifts, and we give them to other partners of ours for dissemination, and that is mostly the Meals on Wheels programs,” Byrne said. “[The gifts] are delivered the week before Christmas when the Meals on Wheels drivers are delivering lunch.”
Byrne said Home Instead supplies paper ornaments to participating businesses with gift suggestions, such as blankets, scarves, hats, gloves, socks, slippers, calendars, photo albums, festive towels and pot holders, to name a few. Gifts tend to be in $10 to $20 range, Byrne said.
Patrons of the business purchase the suggested gifts and return them to the business, which serves as a collection site.
The last day to return gifts, placed in holiday gift bags, is Dec. 12. They plan to deliver the gifts the following week.
“We are so appreciative of the response we get every year,” Byrne said.
They collected 325 gifts last year, and Byrne hopes this year will be even better.
“Over the nine years we’ve been doing it, each year we seem to have a little more response.”
Chalifour’s Flowers in Manchester will be participating as a collection site for at least the fourth year, said manager Judy Pyszka.
“We are happy to do it; it’s kind of become a tradition for us to do it,” Pyszka said. “The staff feels it’s very important because there are a lot of programs out there for children but not for seniors. When they approached us several years ago, we jumped right in because we don’t want to forget about the seniors, especially the ones who are living alone or don’t have much family around.”
Snip It With Style in Concord is in its third year of participating in Be a Santa to a Senior.
“[The staff enjoys] just the reward we get out of it by helping local seniors,” owner Alison Timmins-Ordway said. We are trying to beat [last year’s gift amount and] get 75 this year.”
As seen in the December 11, 2014 issue of the Hippo.
