Seniors centres join forces to help elderly at Christmas

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on November 21, 2024.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Charlene Kocken, senior systems navigator at Nord-Bridge Senior Centre, holds a tag from the Golden Giving Tree this week at the centre's front desk area.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Lethbridge Senior Citizens Organization and Nord-Bridge Senior Centre have partnered to provide a way for the community to give seniors in need a Christmas gift.

Through the “Golden Giving Tree” LSCO and Nord-Bridge Centre will be collecting presents for seniors who are isolated and/or who face financial struggles and have been nominated to receive an anonymous gift this Christmas.

Hannah Dupuis, fundraising and marketing coordinator with LSCO, spoke to the Herald on Monday about the Golden Giving Tree and said they have partnered with Nord-Bridge to take over a similar program that has been ran by a different organization, which is no longer able to offer that option for seniors.

“Nord-Bridge helped us find seniors in need and we contacted some of the smaller care homes, around Lethbridge to find seniors in need as well,” said Dupuis.

 She explained that there are three locations that have Golden Giving Trees and each tree contains Christmas tags with seniors’ wish lists.

 “They’re specifically for seniors that don’t have any family, that don’t have anybody around that would be giving them a gift on Christmas. They are literally seniors that would get nothing if they did not get something from this,” said Dupuis.

Charlene Kocken, senior systems navigator at Nord-Bridge Senior Centre told the Herald Tuesday that they are happy to collaborate with LSCO to be able to provide seniors with a Christmas gift after the other program was cancelled.

“We have a tree here at Nord-Bridge by the front desk. On the tree we have little tags and each tag will have what each senior will need. For example, I’ve had one senior requesting books, a sweater and chocolates,” said Kocken.

She said many members at Nord-Bridge have taken tags from the tree and have dropped off items already and she hopes this continues to be the case. As well as for members of the community to stop by and grab a tag.

Dupuis also provided some examples of items on some of the seniors wish lists and mentioned they are usually not expensive items.

“Things like I want a blanket, some toiletries, maybe some tea, chocolate. So, anything that you can do to donate towards that would be lovely,” said Dupuis.

 She said ideally people will return the to the tree they took the tag from and attach it to the gift bag with unwrapped items inside to avoid confusion when it is time for distribution.

“The deadline is December 13th to drop all your gifts off and then we’ll deliver them out to all the seniors,” said Dupuis.

 She said they only have three locations but are hoping to expand next year as this is their first time doing this type of campaign.

Kocken added that they will be joining forces with LSCO to help deliver the gifts to the seniors who have placed tags on the Golden Giving Trees.

“We will be delivering these to seniors that are isolated and lonely. And we’re hoping to make their day a lot brighter by giving them a gift from the Golden Giving Tree,” said Kocken.

Golden Giving Trees can be found at LSCO located at 500 11 Street South, at Nord-Bridge Seniors Centre located at 1904 13 Avenue North and at London Drugs located at 1240 2 Avenue North.