THE GIFTS THAT KEEP ON GIVING
“T
is better to give than to receive.” That’s always been the saying but seeing the faces of the Randolph Senior Adults Association Meals On Wheels recipients receive their Stockings of Care this holiday season was reason to think otherwise! The senior holiday gift project began several years ago when employees at RSAA decided to start collecting donated personal care items to give to the Meals On Wheels recipients at Christmas as a way of getting necessity items to them while bringing a little extra joy. Many of these folks live alone and are unable to get out to a store or some lack the money to purchase the simple necessities such as soap, shampoo, toothpaste and tooth brushes, even toilet paper. Toilet paper? Enter “2020”. The past year has obviously been one of the most challenging for our seniors. Isolation, loneliness, and the fear of contracting the deadly Covid-19 virus took its toll on most everyone, however, seniors have really struggled with these specific effects. On top of that, many necessity personal care items have
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been at times very hard to find, so it was even more important this holiday season for us at RSAA to deliver the Christmas gifts and make them extra special! Over the past couple of years, the Christmas gift program for Meals On Wheels recipients has evolved into the “Stockings of Care” project. Thanks to a talented group of sewing ladies headed by Gwen Wright, the seniors now receive their gifts in beautifully hand-made Christmas stockings. This past season the community really got behind this project. There have been more seniors in need, and we were able to deliver more stockings with useful and thoughtful gift items than ever before. Plenty of socks for all recipients were provided by Kayser-Roth Hosiery. Also, thanks to Zooland Civitan Club, we were able to include plush warm blankets for each recipient. Once the stockings were sewn and all of the items were collected and organized, a small group of employees and volunteers stuffed each stocking with the gift items (including toilet paper!) along with a
