Santa Claus is coming to town, but his sleigh is low on cheer for about 1,400 local seniors who are alone this holiday season.
Tucsonans can turn that around this weekend through Be a Santa to a Senior, a program coordinated by Home Instead Senior Care in collaboration with nonprofit Love Thy Neighbor Ministries that gathers names for gift recipients from 24 area agencies, nursing homes and adult care facilities citywide.
Similar to an Angel Tree program, Be a Santa to a Senior places trees and wreathes at eight locations around Tucson. Prospective donors can choose an ornament, purchase the requested gift and return it unwrapped (with ornament attached) to the donation box at the chosen location.
Now in its 11enth year locally, the program has helped to provide more than 1.2 million holiday gifts to more than 700,000 seniors worldwide. The program has assisted about 15,000 seniors locally.
The program is seeking 2,800 gifts locally, but Program Coordinator Tormay Newman said that hundreds of ornaments remain on trees with only a few days left before the deadline for gift collection on Tuesday, Dec. 13.
Newman is hoping that generous donors will come forward this weekend to supply the only holiday gifts that these seniors in need will receive. She emphasized that gift recipients, the majority if whom are over age 70, do not qualify based on income alone.
“This is for people who may feel isolated and alone with no family or friends to come and visit them, although most of the people involved are low-income,” Newman said.
The gift requests are simple: pajamas, hand and body lotions, fruit baskets and candy, robes, shawls and other casual clothing convenient for people who may be bed-bound, Newman said.
She said that the gifts are the highlight of the holidays for many of these seniors.
“It is true that we focus on children during the holidays, but there are so many seniors that are forgotten and a program like this brings back the child in them. There is a child in all of us that wants to receive a gift and a kind word during the holidays and having a volunteer come in or someone from the facility where they live give them a gift specifically for them makes them feel significant,” Newman said.
