Home Instead Senior Care Partners With Walgreens And Curry Senior Center To Brighten Holidays For 5,000 Area Seniors

San Francisco – Nov. 17, 2014 – This season, Home Instead Senior Care office serving San Francisco, Curry Senior Center and Walgreens are partnering to provide 5,000 San Francisco area seniors who are alone or impoverished with holiday cheer through the Be a Santa to a Senior® program. Sponsored by the local Home Instead Senior Care® office, the program brings together area nonprofits, retailers, numerous volunteers and members of the community to provide gifts and companionship for lonely and isolated seniors.

“It is heartbreaking to think of the senior members of our community spending the holidays all by themselves, without any gifts or any way to celebrate the season,” says Phil Marechal, owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office serving San Francisco. “But all too often, that’s what happens when seniors live alone. It can be a really tough time of year for them.”

Home Instead Senior Care has partnered with the Curry Senior Center to help with gift collection and distribution prior to the holidays. A total of 65 Be a Santa to a Senior trees will be located at all participating Walgreens locations in the San Francisco area. Program officials hope to collect several thousand gifts in order to help more than 5,000 area seniors this holiday season.

“We are grateful to our program partners, Curry Senior Center and Walgreens, and to the community for helping us provide holiday cheer to so many area seniors,” said Marechal. “Along with our program partners, we will be wrapping and distributing gifts to local seniors who may otherwise spend the holidays alone.”

These Walgreens locations will display Be a Santa to a Senior Christmas trees from Nov. 17 to Dec. 15 that feature ornaments with seniors’ first names and their gift requests. Holiday shoppers can pick ornaments from the trees, buy the items listed and return them unwrapped (and with the ornament attached) to the store by Dec. 15.

“During this season of giving, we encourage shoppers to buy a little extra for a local senior,” said Marechal. “Your gift - and more importantly the visit that comes with the delivery – could make their holiday season.”

For more information about the program, visit www.BeaSantatoaSenior.com or call (415) 441-6490.

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ABOUT HOME INSTEAD SENIOR CARE

Founded in 1994 in Omaha, Nebraska, by Lori and Paul Hogan, the Home Instead Senior Care® network provides personalized care, support and education to help enhance the lives of aging adults and their families. Today, this network is the world’s leading provider of in-home care services for seniors, with more than 1,000 independently owned and operated franchises that are estimated to annually provide more than 50 million hours of care throughout the United States and 16 other countries. Local Home Instead Senior Care offices employ approximately 65,000 CAREGiversSM worldwide who provide basic support services that enable seniors to live safely and comfortably in their own homes for as long as possible. The Home Instead Senior Care network strives to partner with each client and his or her family members to help meet that individual’s needs. Services span the care continuum -- from providing companionship and personal care to specialized Alzheimer’s care and hospice support. Also available are family caregiver education and support resources. At Home Instead Senior Care, it’s relationship before task, while striving to provide superior quality service.