Be a Santa to a Senior

Be a Santa to a Senior at Christmas
Sabrina Byrnes - Oakville Beaver, ON
November 18, 2006

As families and their children gather around Christmas morning to open gifts and celebrate the holidays together, there are many members of the community that are left to celebrate alone, including our seniors.

"They're the one jewel of our society that tends to be forgotten about," said Tom Chuchmach, co-owner of Home Instead Senior Care and committee member of the Be a Santa to a Senior program.

Home Instead Senior Care in Oakville is one of 700 franchises across North America. This is the second year that this franchise has taken part in the program, that started three years ago at its head office.

The Be a Santa to a Senior program which is in partnership with the Willow Foundation, works with several participating Halton merchants.

A Christmas tree is placed in the participating stores and is decorated with paper ornaments that has a specific gift written on it. Shoppers coming into those stores can take the ornaments off the tree, purchase the mentioned gift and leave it at the customer service desk where they will later be picked up and wrapped at the gift wrapping party.

"The Willow Foundation was the first group to really step up," said Chuchmach, who mentioned that during their first year the program almost fell through because they couldn't get names of seniors that could benefit, because of privacy issues.

"With their help we've managed to look after all the seniors throughout the three Halton Long-term Care Facilities, which are supported by the Willow Foundation. That would be Allendale, Post Inn and Creekway," said Chuchmac, adding that through the Willow Foundation the program has also been put into contact with supportive housing in Halton.

Since privacy is still a concern, a number system has been put into play. Managers of the establishments will create a list with all the Christmas wishes of the residents and assign a number to that resident so their identity will never be revealed. The numbers are placed on the paper ornament along with the Christmas wish.

"We're estimating about 1,500 Christmas gifts this year. Last year we did 1,100," remarked Chuchmach, who claimed that he's received positive feedback from members of the community.

"Every time I go out to a store, if I'm putting a tree up or adding more ornaments to a tree, anybody that stops by and starts asking questions they look at me and they go 'What a fantastic idea'," said Chuchmach.

"Christmas has been directed to children and over the years we tend to forget about our seniors," he said.

Chuchmach said there are a lot of seniors who spend Christmas alone and the Be A Santa to A Senior program does make a difference.

"A lot of these people are in a situation where their family members are not living close by, or their family members tend to forget about them," Chuchmach stated adding that Christmas is quite a sentimental time for seniors.

"I know for a fact that a lot of them are there with a tear in their eye, or sitting there wishing that they had a bit more of a Christmas where there was family involved and dinner and that kind of thing," Chuchmach said.

The program, which launched Nov. 1, runs until Dec. 9, where a gift wrapping party will be held at the Oakville Town Hall in the Atrium.

The committee members, which include co-owner of Home Instead Senior Care Scott Johnson, Danna Wilson-Chuchmach and Barb Kennedy from Changing Gears, are still looking for more volunteers to help with the gift wrapping party and to help deliver the gifts. Students that need to complete volunteer hours will also be given documentation of the time they donated.

People interested in volunteering can do so by calling Home Instead Senior Care at 905-847-8433.

Participating merchants throughout Halton include four Zellers, two Walmarts, Heritage Place in Burlington and the Milton seniors' centre.

For a list of specific locations, visit www.beasantatoasenior.com.

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