For the past two Christmas seasons, I have seen the deep personal impact that small gifts made on lonely seniors in Brevard. The gifts were purchased with generous contributions from people like you to the Reaching Out Holiday Fund. These seniors are your nextdoor neighbor, your elementary school teacher, or maybe the man next to you at church. They are parents, grandparents and great-grands.
The commonality is that many seniors are alone, isolated due to poor health and have outlived many or all of their friends and family. Who better to touch with a loving gift? Gifts were distributed from Mims to Micco to seniors at home and at play.
This second year, we upped the ante to 2, gifts. The gifts have been distributed for the past few weeks to individual homes, at the Sunflower House and at 11 Seniors at Lunch sites throughout the county. At the Martin Andersen Senior Center in Rockledge, this past week, a group of seniors attended a Seniors at Lunch program to enjoy good food, visit with friends and celebrate at the annual holiday party.
I had the privilege of attending the party and watching 25 seniors eat a delicious meal and impatiently wait for everyone to finish eating so they could open their gifts. As their gifts were distributed, I quickly found out that seniors shake boxes, pull off wrapping paper, toss out bows and open their gifts with the gusto of their youth. They opened boxes and gift bags hiding slippers, cuddly throws, stamps, pajamas and darling Christmas stockings with gifts inside.
The mood was festive and everyone loved their gifts. I find the most heartwarming aspect of this project is receiving thank-you notes after the gift delivery. I want to share these notes and stories so you can meet the folks benefiting from your donations. Just what I wanted. So warm and soft. The hand lotion is so much appreciated and needed. Thank you. A year-old husband and his year-old wife who receive Meals on Wheels both completed Reaching Out wish lists.
