Be a Santa to a Senior

[Editor's note: The follow blog derives from a Home Instead Senior Care press statement.]

Holiday Gift Drive Brings Presents to Overlooked Seniors

Home Instead Senior Care, a Melrose-based elder home care organization, and Shaw’s Supermarket are bringing holiday cheer to seniors who are in need. The program is called "Be a Santa to a Senior" and provides gifts to seniors who otherwise might not receive a gift this holiday season.

“In addition to supplying presents, Be a Santa to a Senior helps stimulate human contact and social interaction for seniors who are unlikely to have guests during the holidays,” said Ross Capobianco, owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office serving towns north of Boston. “Since children are often the focus of holiday festivities, we’d like to help brighten the holidays for some local seniors as well.”

Here’s how the program works: Prior to the holiday season, area nursing homes and nonprofit organizations will identify financially needy and lonely seniors in the community and confidentially provide those names to Home Instead Senior Care.  A holiday giving tree at Shaw’s Supermarket, 34 Essex St., Melrose, will feature ornaments with the first names of seniors and their respective gift requests. The giving tree will display ornaments near the checkout at Shaw’s Supermarket from Nov. 14-Dec. 3.

Holiday shoppers can pick up an ornament, buy the item(s) specified, and return the present to the store along with the ornament attached. Home Instead Senior Care will enlist the volunteer help of its staff, eldercare professionals and others in the community to collect, wrap and distribute the gifts to these seniors. A gift-wrapping day, when approximately 500 presents will be wrapped, will be held on Dec. 13 at the Milano Senior Center.

“This program is a way that we can give back to our community by providing gifts to some of our most treasured residents,” Capobianco said. “Our hope is that the presents can also help these seniors recapture some of the excitement of their childhood.”

If you would like to help a needy senior, you can pick up an ornament at Shaw’s Supermarket in Melrose from Nov. 14–Dec. 3.

Ross Capobianco is president of Home Instead Senior Care — a provider of home care services to seniors living north of Boston. He can be reached at 781-662-2273 or bostonnorth@homeinstead.com.