It was a successful campaign for Home Instead’s ‘Be A Santa To A Senior’ program, with enough volunteers signed up to help deliver gifts and have a visit with a senior this week.
Owner of Saskatoon’s Home Instead Senior Care, Greg Charyna, says they are visiting care homes across the city and have 400 people joining in on the deliveries and visits.
The fundraising goal was to raise enough money for 700 gifts, and they surpassed that and are closer to 850.
Be A Santa To A Senior will reach out to other charities or organizations to share.
Charyna says the program has evolved over time. In its first year in 2009, the goal was 100 gifts and they topped out at about 150.
Many volunteers go into it thinking they are passing along some holiday cheer, Charyna says, but it also enriches the volunteer so it’s also a gift to the giver.