For the third year in a row, a group of Tisdale residents is working to make sure local seniors receive a gift this year – but they need more donations from the community.
“This year, our present count is a little low,” said Courtenay Schapansky-Bondarchuk, one of the organizers of the Tisdale Secret Santa for Seniors. “If we need to, we’ll leave Newmarket out this year because they already get a Santa drive from the Salvation Army, so if we didn’t get there, they’re still getting a gift, but I really want to deliver to them too because I feel that some of the residents expect it from us.”
In the first year, they collected 280 gifts and last year, they collected 340. They plan to distribute the gifts Dec. 21 and 22. Donations can be dropped off at Northeast Appliance Plus.
Schapansky-Bondarchuk said she got the idea to organize a secret Santa for seniors when she was laid up after a surgery.
“I was just chilling at home and I had this idea about people being alone at Christmastime and I thought, ‘I wonder if that translates into our seniors? How many people must be alone if they lost family or didn’t have family close by?’”
So she asked a friend in the medical field if there was a need for a secret Santa program.
“He said, ‘there’s a major need for it, but there’s no way you can pull it off.’ I took that as a challenge and three days later, I had a secret Santa for seniors on its way.”
They managed to pull off the entire thing in 11 days.
The secret Santa for seniors works like this: members of the community are asked to drop off unwrapped gifts. Suggestions include treats, puzzles, calendars, body wash, toiletry sets, lotions, tea, magazines, heating pads, teddies and dolls, Christmas ornaments, winter wear, diabetic Socks, slippers with grips on the bottom and lots of gift bags.
Schapansky-Bondarchuk and a few volunteers then get together.
“We get together over a couple of nights and package,” she said. “We get the numbers from the housing authority and we get people to tell us if they know somebody that’s alone, a neighbour or whatever. We have them notify us and then we make sure that they do not spend Christmas without a gift.”
They then deliver the gifts to the seniors. The recipients are thankful, with many giving hugs and inviting them in for tea.
“When you go into MacKay Tower, you go into Cedar Villa, it’s just really special,” Schapansky-Bondarchuk said. “Giving them that gift is just really, really, special. It’s something that’s so small, but it’s so thoughtful and our community is so, so amazing and I’m grateful.”
Schapansky-Bondarchuk said the key idea behind the secret Santa is to make sure the seniors of Tisdale aren’t forgotten or left alone this season.
“My children help me do some of the deliveries too and I like to think that I’m showing them that it’s so important to respect the people that paved your way.
Donations can be dropped off at Northeast Appliance Plus. Gifts will be delivered Dec. 21 and 22.
