Be A Santa To A Senior: How To Participate Montrose-La Crescenta

MONTROSE-LA CRESCENTA, CA — The holiday season is a great time to spend time with family, sing carols with friends and drink hot cocoa with the ones you love. Many seniors in Southern California would love to celebrate, but live alone or are unable to spend time with their loved ones.

Home Instead Senior Care's Be a Santa to a Senior program give community members the opportunity to give a senior a holiday gift. Home Instead Senior Care partners with local non-profit and community organizations to find seniors who might not otherwise receive gifts this holiday season. Then, they work with local businesses and retail stores to help facilitate buying and distributing gifts by placing trees and ornaments within their various locations, the Be a Santa to a Senior website said.

Since the Be a Santa to a Senior program was created in 2003, more than 65,000 volunteers have provided about 2 million gifts for more than 750,000 seniors nationwide, the website said.

"The Be a Santa to a Senior program is all about including seniors in the joy of the holiday season," Ben Karakunnel, owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office serving Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Hollywood, said. "A simple gift shows them they are a loved and vital member of our community."

To participate in the Be a Santa to a Senior program, visit one of the locations around Southern California that has a Be a Santa to a Senior tree. The tree will be decorated with ornaments featuring seniors’ first names and gift suggestions, so holiday shoppers can choose an ornament, buy a gift and return it to the store with the ornament attached. There’s no need to worry about wrapping — staff will wrap and deliver the gifts to seniors in time for Christmas, the Be a Santa to a Senior press release said.

"While it may seem like a small act of kindness, it can really make a difference for someone this holiday season," Karakunnel said. "Watching seniors open the gifts they received through Be a Santa to a Senior and seeing the smiles and appreciation on their faces is one of my favorite parts of the holiday season."

The Be a Santa to a Senior tree can be found at:

• LA CRESCENTA LIBRARY, 2809 Foothill Blvd., La Crescenta, CA 91214
• CURVES MONTROSE, 3725 Clifton Place, Montrose, CA 91020

For more information about the program, visit BeaSantatoaSenior.com.