Be a Santa to a Senior

Houston, TX, October 23, 2006 --(PR.com)-- A local senior care company, along with area retailers and senior care agencies, are bringing Santa to the lives of seniors who may have been overlooked in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

The area office of Home Instead Senior Care®, the world’s largest provider of non-medical home care and companionship for seniors, has teamed with H2U, local Meals on Wheels and local Wal-Mart’s to provide presents to seniors who otherwise might not receive a gift this holiday season.

“In addition to supplying gifts, Be a Santa to a Senior® is also designed to help stimulate human contact and social interaction for seniors who are unlikely to have guests during the holidays,” said Jean Marc Mira owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office serving SE Houston and the Bay Area “Since children are often the focus of holiday festivities, we’d like to help brighten the holidays for some area seniors as well.”

Here’s how the program, which runs from Nov. 1 through Dec. 8, works: Prior to the holiday season, the participating local non-profit organizations will identify financially challenged and lonely seniors in the community and provide those names to Home Instead Senior Care for this community service program. Christmas trees, which will go up in the Pearland and Friendswood Wal-Mart’s on November 1 will feature ornaments with the first names of seniors and their respective gift requests.

Holiday shoppers can pick up an ornament, buy the items on the list, and leave them at the store along with the ornament attached. Home Instead Senior Care will enlist the volunteer help of its staff, senior care business associates, non-profit groups and others in the community to collect, wrap and distribute the gifts to these seniors. A citywide gift-wrapping day, when hundreds of the presents will be wrapped, will be held on December 12.

“This program is a way that we can give back to our community by providing gifts to some of our most treasured residents,” Jean Marc Mira said. “Our hope is that the presents also can help these seniors recapture some of the excitement of their childhood.”

If you know the name of a less fortunate senior, or are interested in volunteering to help on the citywide gift-wrapping day, contact Christie Esparza at 281.484.0200 or visit santatoasenior.com to find a participating location near you.

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Editor’s Note: For more information about Be a Santa to a Senior, or to arrange photos of the gift-wrapping day, contact Christie Esparza at 281.484.0200.