Simon Lee had to step over Christmas gifts when he interviewed for a job as community service representative at Home Instead Senior Care last December. The company had been collecting gifts for its Be a Santa to a Senior program, which provides gifts and helps facilitate human contact and social interaction with senior citizens during the Christmas season.
Lee got the job and, along with it, the reins of this year's program.
Here's how it works: nonprofits identify senior citizens in need; Christmas trees go up at participating locations; donors pick paper ornaments with a participant's wish list and then return new, unwrapped gifts to that location. The local Home Instead Senior Care office enlists volunteers to help wrap gifts and deliver them.
This is Home Instead's 13th year to participate in the program, Lee says. More than 20,000 gifts have been delivered over the last 12 years.
Trees can be found at Pilates Studio of Little Rock on Kavanaugh Boulevard in Hillcrest; some Little Rock and North Little Rock Walgreens stores; Walgreens in Maumelle, Searcy, Cabot, Benton, Bryant and Sherwood; some Dollar General stores; Kmart in Cabot; Conway Regional Medical Center; and St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Russellville -- among other locations.
The program is big, but it's fun, says Lee, now director of marketing and quality assurance for Home Instead -- a local, independently owned and operated franchise.
"You should see some of the gifts the community is getting," he says. "Completely outstanding participation. And the Kmart in Cabot -- that city comes out in full force."
Simon and others routinely collect gifts from participating locations, so there's not a pileup at the drop-off points. The trees are still up and gifts can be returned by Friday.
A wrapping party will be held Dec. 13 at Home Instead's new offices, 909 Cumberland St. in Little Rock. It starts at 4:30 p.m. and goes until all the presents are wrapped. The gifts will be delivered to the senior citizens beginning Dec. 19. Volunteers come from youth groups, nursing facilities and hospitals, as well as family and friends of Home Instead caregivers and other employees who help.
"We put the word out and let folks know they are welcome to help us," Lee says. "It's not hard to get people to help." Facilities like nursing homes that have multiple people receiving gifts will come pick them up, he adds.
"It is much like hanging paper ornaments on a tree and watching those ornaments turn into gifts for those who have needs," Lee continues. "Gathering the gifts turns into wrapping them, and wrapping them turns into delivering them. It's the Christmas spirit the best I can tell."
Over the years, donors have found innovative ways to up the ante. Schoolchildren have helped decorate gift bags and delivered handmade cards, one law firm adopted 40 senior citizens, and one group donated robes and knitted hats and scarves.
"Not only are they getting a gift, they're getting a visit from somebody," Lee says.
As a former newspaper reporter and private business owner, Lee's a gatherer of information. Senior citizens are struggling, he says, with 10 percent of U.S. adults 65 and older living in poverty. They're lonely, too, with nearly one-quarter of them widowed. Many are alone with no family or friends nearby during the Christmas holidays. And the fact that it gets dark earlier and stays dark longer doesn't help.
"So many people we've come in contact with have outlived their families," Lee says. "They don't have children or grandchildren or nieces or nephews who can be there to help or provide even a gift.
"We focus on people in need. We know there would be no Christmas for them if people in the community didn't come together to give of themselves to the program."
The gifts don't have to be extravagant. One recent ornament Lee saw had one request: diabetic socks. Be a Santa to a Senior serves a growing segment of society at a time when small tokens of kindness can mean the most.
More information on Be a Santa to a Senior can be found at BeASantaToASenior.com. Website visitors are encouraged to enter a ZIP code to find the nearest giving tree.
High Profile on 12/04/2016