Candie Bonner knows that for some elders, the cheery melodies of holiday songs and sweet flavors of seasonal pastries might sound dull and taste lonely.
As the Wasatch County Senior Center activities coordinator, she said she’s noticed there are two main groups of older individuals who participate in the center’s programs. To join, an individual can be as young as 55.
“We have a group of individuals that are very active, that are kind of in this transition stage in their life,” she said. “They’re just trying to find out who they are again.”
The other group is more home-bound.
“Sometimes the only people they see is their Meals on Wheels driver,” she said.
Looking toward the holiday season, she wanted a way to launch a program that would benefit both groups of seniors and involve the community.
The center decided to start a secular 12 days of Christmas activity in which community members could donate gifts and younger seniors would drop off gifts to older, more confined seniors who may no longer see the holiday as such a merry and bright end of the year.
Chosen seniors will receive 12 gifts in 12 days, each with a cute message.
Bonnor hoped the program would help people better understand the center is not a rest home and perhaps even attract more senior citizens who want to get involved.
Since it is the first year and she wanted to make sure everything would go smoothly, she decided on about 60 older individuals to receive the gifts. And while the sets of 12 gifts weren’t as complex or hard to find as a partridge, some gold rings, a pear tree or maids-a-milking, the center still needed the community’s help to get the almost 1,000 small gifts the program would require.
“We’re a government agency,” Bonner said. “We just don’t have the funds to do that.”
The community’s response did not let her or the senior center down.
“I was expecting people to donate,” Bonner said. “I wasn’t expecting people to be as giving as they were.”
Several groups from the Wasatch County High School reached out wanting to help, as did others who donated not only one or two items, but in some cases all 60.
A month before Christmas, Bonner said the community has already supplied the necessary items and she is still receiving messages from people asking how they can help.
Even though the 12 days’ gifts are taken care of, there are still plenty of opportunities for people to support aging community members.
“Be aware of your own neighbors, your own neighborhood. There’s a lot of seniors that can’t get out and shovel their driveways or dig out their fire hydrants. That was huge last year,” Bonner said. “Be aware of who your neighbors are. Maybe don’t have to have a reason to stop by and say hello.”