Community Chat

[Abrowneyegirl]

At a recent conference I learned about the rising amount of seniors who are alone, either because

1- they have out lived their family/children

2-their children have begged, borrowed or stole from them and when the $ ran out so did their family

I have been looking for some sort of 'secret Santa' project to donate to. All of my searches yield projects for children.

Does anyone know of a senior project I can look into, senior citizens alone and forgotten really break my heart

[chrystaltree]

Contact the Elder Affairs office in your town or city; I'm sure they have list of holiday charities for senior citizens. You can also contact any church. I don't know what you mean by secret Santa. Our church has a list of older parishners who are alone, not well or financially challenged. Interested parties select a name provide gifts and/or a holiday dinner or they invite the person to their home for dinner. Whatever the senior is comfortable with, it's not really a secret. I think we all contact the person first to meet and find out what they want or need.

[Peaches McPhee]

Goodness, you won't need to look very hard. Try a local nursing home.

[Abrowneyegirl]

I have found an answer!!

A local in-home support agency for seniors has a Secret Santa program. They put paper ornaments on a Christmas tree with the seniors first name, age and request.

The woman I spoke to said she did it last year and most of the requests were for necessities such as socks, lotion, toilet paper, puzzle books or chap sticks. She too found many seniors are home alone for the holidays.

You select the seniors you wish to help, purchase the gifts, wrap and return the gifts to one of the collection areas.