An Edmonton organization is hoping to bring holiday cheer to hundreds of seniors this Christmas
Home Instead Edmonton’s Be a Santa to a Senior program provides gifts for seniors who are alone during the holiday season and may not otherwise receive one. Edmontonians can either buy gifts and drop them off at Home Instead’s offices or, through a partnership with Amazon Business, tailored gifts can be purchased online for the seniors.
“If you’re just going out and purchasing gifts, the general theme for those would be things like socks, warm blankets, toiletries are always a good one, sweets, seniors love their sweet, slippers, but make sure they have grips, those types of things,” said Morgan Fernie, client care and marketing representative for Home Instead Edmonton.
“The really great thing about the Amazon program … is you’re actually able to make these lists more specific because what’s happening is someone from Sage, for example, they’re sending me a list with a specific name with specific items catered to that person. And then I’m able to go on Amazon and specifically pick those items and it’s really, really great because it kind of personalizes those gifts.”
So far this year, only about 150 seniors have signed up to receive a gift, but Fernie is hoping to have between 500 and 600 seniors.
“It would really, really help if people reached out to our office if they know a senior who would not get a gift, doesn’t have family, would appreciate something, could use something,” she said.
Last year, Fernie’s Home Instead location in west Edmonton provided about 800 gifts to approximately 350 seniors.
“A week before Christmas, I had people calling saying, ‘There’s no more bulbs, I want to buy something.’ I didn’t have any left. Everyone was so generous last year. I think this year will be the same, I just need more seniors.”
This is the second year Home Instead is partnering with Amazon to provide gifts to seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fernie said last year, moving gift purchasing to an online format allowed them to deliver more gifts.
“At this office we had never hit numbers that high, which is fantastic. And the feedback that we got, particularly from the seniors, was pretty amazing. We were able to help out a lot of people.”
If you or a senior you know would like to participate in this year’s Be a Santa to a Senior program, contact Fernie at 780-439-9990 ext. 105 or email at morgan.fernie@homeinstead.com
Read the Original Article Here
Author:
ajunker@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/JunkerAnna
