A flurry of gift-wrapping at a White Rock business this week means dozens of isolated seniors will receive a special delivery this Christmas.
Wes Colby, owner of the White Rock location of Home Instead Senior Care, said hundreds of gifts were packaged up Monday for the annual Be a Santa to a Senior program.
Launched in 2003, the program invites residents to pick up ornaments that are hung on Christmas trees at various community locations and bear the names of seniors and requested gifts.
This year, the local effort will benefit 56 seniors in communities including White Rock, Ladner and Langley.
“It went really well,” Colby told Peace Arch News Tuesday, of the wrapping event. “We’ve got just a few more gifts trickling in, but we’re pretty close to 100 per cent coverage for all the recipient names we received.
“The public has been just so generous.”
Colby said each of the seniors – identified with help from the Come Share Society, Deltassist and the Langley Seniors Resource Centre – will receive a moving box (donated by U-Haul) full of gifts ranging from blankets and chocolates to gift cards and more.
He said recipients are appreciative.
“It gets me every year,” he said, of the reality that many seniors spend Christmas alone.
Colby said the experience of delivering the gifts is difficult to put into words.
“You have to sort of experience it,” he said. “It’s so, so appreciated.
“Just having someone show up to talk to them is appreciated.”
Deliveries were expected to get underway this week.
For more information on the Be a Santa to a Senior program, visit www.beasantatoasenior.com