Gift donations bringing joy to older adults over the holidays
Friendly Manitoba is living up to its name this holiday season with some residents spreading holiday cheer to Manitobans living in care homes.
For the last 14 years, Home Instead Winnipeg has been organizing the ‘Be a Santa to a Senior’ program, an initiative that delivers gifts to isolated older adults living in the community.
“Over the years we’ve delivered over 35,000 gifts and we really hope to reach our goal of 40,000 gifts this year,” said Julie Donaldson, owner of Home Instead Winnipeg.
She said Home Instead works with A & O Support Services to provide the program -- A & O delivers gifts to older adults who live independently and Home Instead delivers to older adults living in care homes.
Donaldson said there is a strong need for gifts and donations this year compared to past years, especially as the fourth wave of COVID-19 is forcing some care homes to restrict visits from family members.
“I know this is the first year (since the pandemic) we can celebrate with our friends and family, and we still ask you to think about those older adults that are in personal care homes and are very likely not to have a visit this year,” she said.
Donaldson said popular gifts are things like coloring books, Sudoku puzzles, socks, blankets and toiletry items, as well as things of comfort like stuffed animals.
“We love to get the handmade Christmas cards from families and children to go along with them, because those messages that are delivered to those older adults, it just really brings them joy on Christmas day,” Donaldson said.
Anyone can donate a gift or cash by heading to the A & O website.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Poilievre unrepentant over calling Trudeau 'wacko' as his MPs say Speaker should resign
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.