Santa for Seniors continues to grow each year

By Mo Cranker on December 4, 2018.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com
@MHNmocranker

Anyone looking to brighten the day of a senior citizen this Holiday season can do so by purchasing them a gift and donating it to the Santa for Seniors program.

Santa for Seniors has a number of trees covered in tags at various businesses around the city — each tag has the name of an item written on it. People can purchase the items and then return them to the tree unwrapped to be given to a senior citizen locally around Christmas. The gifts are picked out by seniors for things they feel they need.

“All of the gifts people buy go to local seniors and we have nine different homes taking part this year,” said organizer Erin Turcotte. “People can grab a tag from one of the participating businesses and then return the gift unwrapped to the tree.

“Gifts can be as little as $1 and up to around $20, so people can choose a tag they feel like can afford.”

The businesses participating are Fox Safety, Southridge Boston Pizza, the Shoppers Drug Mart in the mall, Re/Max Medalta real estate and the downtown Bank of Montreal.

“This year there’s 427 tags made up and the goal is to get them all filled out with a gift,” said Turcotte. “Last year we did over 300 so it is growing every year.

“The support has been amazing from the city. I know this is a time of year when money is tight for people, but the city has really come through and it’s a cause people believe in.”

The group will be delivering gifts to seniors on the 21st and 22nd and will be accepting gift donations up until distribution day.

“We’re looking for volunteers for distribution and for wrapping,” Turcotte said. “We need gifts to come in unwrapped and then we wrap them all before we give them out.”

For more information or to get involved as a volunteer go to ‘Santa for Seniors – Medicine Hat’ on Facebook.

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