You Can Bring Joy to a Senior This Holiday Season!

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When deciding how to benefit your community this holiday season, I encourage you to consider helping vulnerable senior citizens! Donating to help underprivileged seniors in your community is convenient for the giver and joyous for the recipient.

Why consider helping seniors this holiday season?
Daily Caring, a caregiver resource guide, informs that helping seniors is vital in part because over 12 million(close to 28%) seniors live alone, 21% of these seniors do not drive(which increases isolation and decreases access to resources), and hunger threatens over 9 million elderly every year. Senior citizens in your community are in dire need of assistance for necessities and the joy that a holiday surprise can bring!

How can I brighten a seniors holiday?
One of the ways you can brighten a seniors holiday is to partner with organizations that give to seniors who might not receive gifts this holiday season. One incredibly active organization that does just that is Be a Santa to a Senior. Since 2003 Be a Santa to a Senior has provided over 1,200,000 gifts and brightened the holidays of over 700,000 senior citizens in need! This program works by seniors providing gift requests to the organization, and these requests being placed on a tree ornament. Christmas trees filled with ornaments are distributed across the country. As the giver all you need to do is to log onto https://www.beasantatoasenior.com to find tree within your zip code. Once you locate a tree you can choose an ornament, purchase the requested gift(s) stated on the bulb, and place the purchases in the designated donation box. And just like that you have brought joy to an at risk senior in your community!

Additional resources
Deciding on where to donate to is a personal decision. If Be a Santa to a Senior does not speak to you, or you are interested in additional ways to help your community, I have listed a quick reference for resources you can use when donating. Have a happy giving holiday!

Caregiver resources: http://dailycaring.com/how-to-help-seniors-during-the-holidays/

Volunteer guide broken down by state: https://www.seniorcare.com/featured/volunteer-to-help-the-elderly/

Holiday Stocking Project: https://www.seniorcare.com/featured/volunteer-to-help-the-elderly/

Adopt a family for the holidays: https://christmasfamilyadoption.com

Christmas assistance programs contact information: https://helpingamericansfindhelp.org/christmas-assistance-help/

- Rachel Hill

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