Last Friday morning, I joined the employees of GE Healthcare in South Burlington and Home Instead Senior Care as they launched a campaign to make sure we share the spirit of the season with the seniors in our communities.

The campaign, called “Be A Santa To A Senior”, last year delivered more than 1,000 gifts to local seniors. Area retailers, along with agencies that serve older adults, have partnered with a local senior-care service to make sure that isolated seniors receive gifts and companionship during the holiday season.

In this year’s difficult economy, that little bit of warmth will go a long way.

Leading the program is Home Instead Senior Care, the local office of a national network of service-providers that takes care of elders in their own homes, so they can continue to live independently, in Chittenden, Franklin, Lamoille, Grand Isle and Addison Counties. Several area senior-care agencies, as well as Wal-Mart, Chittenden Bank Loan Department and several area Rite-Aid locations have joined in the effort.

“Be A Santa To A Senior” is in its fifth year as a national program, which last year engaged more than 26,400 volunteers to distribute gifts to deserving seniors. Since introducing the program, Home Instead Senior Care has helped provide more than 930,000 gifts to 568,055 seniors in North America.

I met Patrice Thabault, owner of the local Home Instead office, at the launch event. She told me that every year, “Be A Santa To A Senior” sets a new record in contributions to a group that often is forgotten during the hectic holiday season. She pointed out that while children are the beneficiaries of many holiday programs, people sometimes forget about the isolated and lonely seniors who need to be remembered as well during this season. The caregivers who serve those seniors say that human contact and social interaction for some older adults, who may not have any guests at all during the holidays, not only lifts their spirits but also has a positive effect on overall health.

Here’s how the program, which runs now through Dec. 6th, works:

In advance of the holiday season, the participating local non-profit organizations identify needy and isolated seniors in the community, and provide those names to Home Instead Senior Care for inclusion in this community service program. Christmas trees, which will go up in Wal-Mart, Chittenden Bank Loan Department and Rite-Aid locations on November 7th will feature ornaments with the first names only of the seniors and their respective gift requests.

Holiday shoppers can pick up an ornament, buy items on the list and return them unwrapped to the store, along with the ornament attached. Home Instead Senior Care
then enlists the volunteer help of its staff, senior-care business associates, non-profit workers and others 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 the morning of December 13th at GE Healthcare.

As chair of the Governor’s Commission on Healthy Aging, I am always looking for programs like “Be A Santa To A Senior”, to celebrate and to share around our state as a great way to say “thanks” to those older adults who have helped build our community. It’s good for those who give, and it’s good for those who receive. Patrice Thabault says, “Our hope is that many will be touched by this holiday gesture of goodwill.”

If you don’t live in the Chittenden, Franklin, Lamoille, Grand Isle and Addison County area, you might consider replicating the program in your town or county.

For more information, to learn about how your businesses can adopt a group of seniors, to volunteer for the citywide gift-wrapping day, or for tree locations in your area, contact Karen Koechlein at the Home Instead Senior Care office in South Burlington at (802) 860-4663, or log on to www.beasantatoasenior.com

Brian Dubie is Vermont’s Lieutenant Governor. E-mail his office a martha.hanson@state.vt.us, or visit www.ltgov.state.vt.us