Volunteers brighten the holidays for lonely seniors

FRANKLIN — During the holiday season, as families gather to celebrate and kids are spoiled, oftentimes, seniors can feel neglected. On Tuesday, December 11th, child volunteers prepped presents for seniors.

“Be a Santa to a Senior” is an annual program put on by Home Instead Senior Care.

“It`s just like a child`s eye. They just light up and say 'someone thought of me. This is mine,'” Katherine Peppler with Home Instead Senior Care said.

For the last several weeks, trees have been up in participating stores filled with paper ornaments with gift ideas on them. Shoppers have been buying gifts for seniors who find themselves alone on Christmas.

“Our seniors in the community have low-incomes, limited budgets, so we have more and more seniors actually asking and needing and having been identified as isolated and lonely,” Peppler said.

On Tuesday, volunteers picked up the barrels of donated gifts and the wrapping began!

“It`s amazing how many gifts have been donated by our communities. The least I can do is be here to help wrap,” volunteer Megan Federighe said.

About a dozen people, like Cindy Telford, donated their time to add a special finishing touch to more than 800 presents.

“It gives you a sense of giving back to your community, helping our elders and just seeing them happy. That`s what it`s all about, ” Telford said.

Hardworking hands and warm hearts will create many smiles this holiday season.

Gifts for “Be a Santa to a Senior” are still being collected through the end of the week. Volunteers will start distributing them next week.