Home Instead Senior Care & South Shore Elder Services Announce Third Annual Holiday Gift Program: “Be a Santa to a Senior”

DATELINE: BRAINTREE, MASS…This holiday season, Home Instead Senior Care and South Shore Elder Services encourage individuals and businesses to consider becoming “Santa” to an elderly person who otherwise may not receive a gift by participating in the “Be a Santa to a Senior” community service program.

Home Instead Senior Care of Norwell has teamed with South Shore Elder Services (a private, non-profit agency in Braintree providing seniors and caregivers throughout the South Shore area with valuable resources and services) as well as the Hanover Council on Aging, Braintree Council on Aging, ABCD Foster Grandparent Program and Weymouth Department of Elder Affairs in the third annual “Be a Santa to a Senior” program.

Over the past two years, the “Be a Santa to a Senior” program has provided more than 1,200 gifts to 750 seniors. This year’s program runs from November 10th through December 15th and will be held at the Hanover Mall.

How does it work? Prior to the holiday season, South Shore Elder Services and the other participating non-profit organizations identified orphaned and isolated seniors in the community who otherwise would not receive a gift this year.

The seniors’ names were provided to Home Instead Senior Care, who erected a Christmas tree at Customer Service in the Hanover Mall. The tree is decorated with ornaments bearing the first names of seniors and their respective gift requests.

Holiday shoppers simply retrieve an ornament from the tree, purchase a senior’s requested gift and bring the gift (with ornament name tag) to Hanover Mall’s Customer Service desk. Businesses that would like to “adopt” a group of seniors and give gifts to them are encouraged to contact Home Instead Senior Care.

After December 15th, Home Instead Senior Care volunteers collect the gifts and participating agencies, including South Shore Elder Services, wrap and distribute the gifts to the seniors.

For more information or if you would like to help on the citywide gift wrapping day for the “Be a Santa to a Senior” program, contact Jennifer Moran at (781) 878-2994.

“Your Age Info Specialist”
Since 1977, South Shore Elder Services, Inc. has been providing South Shore seniors and caregivers with the resources and services that promote and maintain optimal levels of elder independence.

As one of 27 Aging Services Access Points in Massachusetts, South Shore Elder Services coordinates and provide a wide range of services to elders and caregivers throughout Braintree, Cohasset, Hingham, Holbrook, Hull, Milton, Norwell, Quincy, Randolph, Scituate and Weymouth. The agency’s mission is to promote and maintain an optimal level of elder independence through the coordination of resources, advocacy and caregiver support.

Supported in part by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs, South Shore Elder Services is located at 159 Bay State Drive in Braintree, MA. For more information contact (781) 848-3910 or visit their website at www.sselder.org.

CONTACT: Steven Dubin, PR Works, (781) 582-1061, sdubin@prworkzone.com.