As the 2019 holiday season approaches, the Niverville United Church, in partnership with Home Instead Senior Care (HISC), a senior home care service, is starting up a new program in town: Be a Santa to a Senior.

“Last year we delivered over 1000 gifts to seniors,” says Julie Donaldson of HISC, adding that the program is an important one because so many seniors in our communities are becoming isolated.

Since 2013, HISC has been providing the Be a Santa to a Senior program, which creates a way for members of a community to purchase gifts for local seniors. They have delivered more than 25,000 gifts in Manitoba and look forward to sharing the tradition with Niverville.

Through the program, seniors are able to connect with younger members of their community, who in turn are given the opportunity to help care for the very people who built the towns and villages in which they live.

The program will collect names of people who live in local senior facilities, along with a requested gift. Residents of Niverville will then be asked to collect a name and bring their gift to the Niverville United Church from December 8–10. HISC will then handle the deliveries.

HISC encourages the local Santas to include cards and letters with the gifts, along with a description of themselves, in order to help seniors feel more included in the holidays.

“We need to remember the people who helped built our communities,” says Donaldson. “It is important that we care for them.”

For those wishing to take part, Be a Santa to a Senior will begin the week after Remembrance Day. HISC has arranged for names to be picked up at Hespeler’s Cookhouse & Tavern on the evenings of November 21–22, as well as at the Niverville Bigway on November 23 from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.