This holiday season, more than ever, seniors in need – need your help. In a report released in May by AARP titled “The Economic Slowdown’s Impact on Middle-Aged and Older Americans,” 59 percent of seniors 65 and older surveyed said they’d found it more difficult to pay for essential items such as food, gas and medicine. Nearly half (47 percent) said they found it more difficult to pay for utilities such as heating, cooling or phone service.
As the owner of Home Instead Senior Care for Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valley, I have the very good fortune of being able to take part in a national corporate-founded program called Be a Santa to a Senior, a wonderful way for people to come together to make seniors’ wishes come true during the holidays.
With the help of area non-profit organizations including the SCV Senior Center, the AV Committee on Aging, and the SCV Food Pantry, we will be able to identify local seniors in need. Trees will be put up in various locations and ornaments with the first names of those seniors will be used to decorate the trees. The ornaments will indicate each senior’s wish list – everything from grocery cards to bedding to heaters to slippers.
Those of you who would like to purchase gifts for these seniors can take an ornament, buy the gifts, and return them to the tree location, where volunteers and CAREGivers from Home Instead Senior Care will pick them up, then help wrap and distribute them.
In addition to providing gifts, Be a Santa to a Senior offers human contact and social interaction for seniors who are unlikely to have family or guest visits during the holidays. And the resulting smiles and memories will be a gift we all can share.
We would appreciate your help in making this season one of joy and giving for seniors. In the coming weeks, we will be asking local merchants for space to display a tree, and we will be posting those locations on the Be a Santa to a Senior website!
For information or questions on how to Be a Santa to a Senior, please call us at Home Instead Senior Care, 661-254-8701 or visit our website, www.beasantatoasenior.com , and plug in your zip code for the location of our gift trees.