Senior Spotlight: Help Bring Christmas Joy to a Big Country Senior
By: Katherine Lane
Updated: May 17, 2010
It is the season in which you can be a Santa to a senior. A program sponsored by Home Instead to make sure senior citizens in the Big Country receive a gift for Christmas.
"Maybe I'd get an orange and an apple and a few little somethings else, and that was my Christmas."
Ninety-eight year old Hazel Kinney has fond memories of Christmas, but her favorite memories are of giving.
" I've always been the type that loved to give, i've never cared much about receiving. I love to give things to people."
Hazel spends most of her time with her granddaughter, who is her only family member in Abilene. She says she's fortunate to have any family to spend Christmas with at all.
Derral Reed with Home Instead Senior Care says, "I just wish they had somebody, I'd love to be with all of them."
Reed knows many seniors aren't as fortunate to have family to spend Christmas with, that's where the Santa for a Senior program comes in.
"It's the real simple things, that can really create a smile. Many time it's not just the actual gift but somebody coming and delivering a gift and passing along the spirit of Christmas is probably the biggest thing that people benefit from this program."
To be a Santa to a Senior, go to Walmart on Highway 351. Take an ornament off of the senior tree, buy the gift, and leave it at register 14. From there, Home Instead will wrap and deliver the gift. Ensuring every Big Country senior has a Merry Christmas.
On Christmas day Hazel will turn 99 years old.
"Maybe I'd get an orange and an apple and a few little somethings else, and that was my Christmas."
Ninety-eight year old Hazel Kinney has fond memories of Christmas, but her favorite memories are of giving.
" I've always been the type that loved to give, i've never cared much about receiving. I love to give things to people."
Hazel spends most of her time with her granddaughter, who is her only family member in Abilene. She says she's fortunate to have any family to spend Christmas with at all.
Derral Reed with Home Instead Senior Care says, "I just wish they had somebody, I'd love to be with all of them."
Reed knows many seniors aren't as fortunate to have family to spend Christmas with, that's where the Santa for a Senior program comes in.
"It's the real simple things, that can really create a smile. Many time it's not just the actual gift but somebody coming and delivering a gift and passing along the spirit of Christmas is probably the biggest thing that people benefit from this program."
To be a Santa to a Senior, go to Walmart on Highway 351. Take an ornament off of the senior tree, buy the gift, and leave it at register 14. From there, Home Instead will wrap and deliver the gift. Ensuring every Big Country senior has a Merry Christmas.
On Christmas day Hazel will turn 99 years old.
