‘A Christmas to Remember’ helping bring joy to local seniors this Christmas

“The whole idea behind it was to reach out to seniors in the community who maybe don’t have family, or maybe even if they do have family, maybe are spending Christmas alone,” explained Age Care general manager Kim Swanson.

There are Christmas trees set up at Age Care and London Drugs. The trees are covered with tags that have senior’s names, or just a gender and lists of possible gifts.

Many of the gifts include things like socks, slippers, scarves, soap, lotion, tea, puzzles and some Christmas treats.

“It’s really an eyeopener when you see what they’re looking for,” said Gordon MacKinnon, assistant store manager at London Drugs. “A lot of items we would simply take for granted. Facial Tissue, a warm pair of socks; pretty standard, that again, a lot of us take for granted.”

People are encouraged to take a tag, buy the gifts and drop them off at London Drugs. Volunteers will wrap them and deliver them to seniors, and others who may be spending the holidays alone, just before Christmas.

“We’ve spent some time down at the Champions Centre, we took some of the gifts down to the Food Bank and of course Meals on Wheels as well, and then our own residents here at Valleyview as well,” Swanson said.

Last year over 700 gifts were donated to local seniors. This year the goal is 900.

“We will make sure that everyone who is on our list will get a Christmas gift,” said MacKinnon. “Western Canada London Drugs [has] over 10,000 seniors that we’re going to be helping this season.”

The seniors who’ve participated in the program say it’s nice to know there’s something thinking of them, who would take the time and money to buy them something.

“I felt quite good about that, i really admire people who do that,” said Age Care resident Melvin Roth. “There’s not enough love in this world anymore, there should be more of course,”

“There’s all kinds of nice things in here, towels and powders and stuff,” said Elma Friesz after receiving a gift. “It’s just something for them that gives [us] some cheer.”

Several volunteers help to wrap and deliver the presents. MacKinnon said the joy it brings to the residents and the volunteers is what Christmas is really all about.

“It was so heartwarming to see the look on their faces and hear them ask, ‘who thought of me? Who did this for me?’ and to let them know it’s the people in our community who have donated so generously,” she said.

Donations can be made and dropped off at London Drugs until the end of the day on Sunday December 17th.

by Leah Murray

‘A Christmas to Remember’ helping bring joy to local seniors this Christmas

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