Be a Santa to a Senior Program to Give Its One Millionth Gift This Holiday Season

Santa isn't the only one busily preparing this year for the coming holidays. Home Instead Senior Care will reach a milestone this year, as it surpasses one million gifts to needy seniors since the inception of the gift-giving program, Be a Santa to a Senior. The popular campaign that last year delivered more than 400,000 gifts to needy seniors throughout North America is being launched again this holiday season.

Omaha, NE (PRWEB) November 20, 2008 -- Be a Santa to a Senior (http://www.beasantatoasenior.com), an international gift-gifting program in its fifth year, will reach a milestone this year, exceeding one million gifts to needy seniors during the holiday season. The popular campaign launched by the international caregiving company Home Instead Senior Care (http://www.homeinstead.com) partners with retailers throughout communities in the U.S. and Canada, and agencies that serve older adults, to ensure that isolated seniors receive gifts and companionship.

During the past four years, the campaign's 63,460 volunteers have distributed more than 930,000 gifts to 568,055 seniors "While children are the beneficiaries of many holiday programs, people often don't think about the isolated and lonely seniors who need to be remembered as well during this season," said Home Instead Senior Care Co-Founder Lori Hogan. "Be a Santa to a Senior also is designed to help stimulate human contact and social interaction for older adults who are unlikely to have guests during the holidays."

Here's how the program, which runs from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, works: Prior to the holiday season, the participating local non-profit organizations will identify needy and isolated seniors in their communities and provide those names to Home Instead Senior Care. Christmas trees, which will go up in stores throughout North America, 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. Citywide gift-wrapping day, when hundreds of the presents will be wrapped, are scheduled in many communities.

"We've found that seniors don't want extravagant gifts. It's truly appears to be the thought that counts," Hogan said. "Commonly requested gifts include grocery and

restaurant gift certificates, snacks and chocolates, crossword puzzles and magazines, hats and gloves, and blankets," she noted.

"Be a Santa to a Senior is a fulfilling way to say thanks to those older adults who have helped build our community," Hogan said. "Our hope is that many will be touched by this holiday gesture of goodwill."

Businesses are encouraged to contact their local Home Instead Senior Care offices about adopting groups of seniors. For tree locations in your area, or for more information about the program, log on to www.beasantatoasenior.com.

For more information about Home Instead Senior Care and the growth of the Be A Santa To A Senior program, contact Dan Wieberg, Public Relations Manager at 888-484-5759.

###