Spreading holiday joy for Windsor seniors

By Angelica Haggert

A self-proclaimed “ribbon master” gleefully made elegant bows. One participant added socks, gloves and a scarf to a basket while another cut cellophane to wrap around it. Another participant’s job was to move the completed baskets from the wrapping station to the “done” pile.

As participants in the day program at Assisted Living Southwestern Ontario, they were likely wrapping presents they’d receive themselves.

The Be a Santa to a Senior program has been around since 2003 and covers North America. Locally, Ryan Jershy’s Tecumseh-based Home Instead location has participated for the last eight years.

“We target those that never get a visitor, that have no family,” said Jershy. “The last few years we’ve done almost 1,000 gifts a year.”

Various care organizations, such as Canadian Mental Health Association and Life After Fifty, put up names of seniors and their desired gifts on tags that hang on trees around the city. Volunteers select a tag, purchase a gift, and drop it off at Assisted Living Southwestern Ontario. Cash donations are also accepted.

“The Assisted Living Southwestern Ontario day program takes a whole bunch of different things equalling $25 and put them in a basket and wrap them up,” said Jershy.

About a third of the gifts are generic ones the organization puts together, including socks and gloves and crossword puzzle books.

“It’s an amazing response,” said Laura Kay. She organizes the campaign at Assisted Living. “These are the type of people that don’t normally get Christmas presents for Christmas.”

Kay got involved when someone asked her to pick up a tag and purchase a gift.

“Someone asked me to purchase a gift for somebody in need,” said Kay. “I took two gift tags home and bought the gifts and when I came in I was impressed with how many gifts there were in this exact room. I decided to get more heavily involved the following year.”

Kay supervises the day program’s participation and says for those participants, the experience is invaluable.

“Not only are we giving a gift to somebody who wouldn’t necessarily get a Christmas gift, but we’re also giving the consumers in our day program something meaningful to do.”

Gifts were collected until Dec. 6 and could be dropped off either at Home Instead or at Assisted Living. On Dec. 12, a wrapping party takes all of those gifts and organizes them into the different care facilities for drop off.

“We have a lot of volunteers come and help us wrap the presents,” said Kay. Assisted Living welcomes anyone to go and help wrap presents. Volunteers also help drop off the gifts.

“To be able to see their face when they get their present on Christmas is amazing.”

This year, the Windsor Jeep Club donated its time to help deliver the gifts.

“It’s the small things that really make a difference,” said Jershy.

In the last few years, Home Instead has dropped off a thousand gifts a year to seniors in Windsor-Essex.

“It’s really just a program that’s designed to help people.”