What began as a way to bring company and joy to isolated seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic has grown into an annual tradition — one that also brings joy to its organizer, Joan King.
On Friday, volunteers from across Niagara-on-the-Lake will gather to make and deliver dozens of Christmas stockings to residents in long-term care homes. King said Niagara Long Term Care Residence will receive 102 stockings, Pleasant Manor 65, Meals on Wheels 20 and Meadows of Dorchester in Niagara Falls 120.
A wide range of community members contribute to the effort. Students at Crossroads Public School are making 60 stockings, while Dorothy Soo-Wiens and the Niagara-on-the-Lake Lions Club are producing 30.
“There’s a group of ladies on Nassau Street that made 14,” King said. “It really touches your heart.”
The initiative extends beyond stockings. King said Amika Verwegen and her children create handmade cards each year, complete with Christmas riddles, for the residents.
Martin Mazza, whose mother lives at Pleasant Manor, will also take part by dressing as Santa Claus and handing out stockings. He’s started doing this three years ago and was originally convinced to do it by King. He said he finds the experience extremely rewarding.
“It’s the one thing I look forward to most at Christmas,” said Mazza.
He also referred to King as a person he respects and as very “community-minded.”
King said she started the project during COVID, when long-term care residents were lonely and frightened, in hopes of lifting their spirits.
In a short time, it has become a cherished Niagara-on-the-Lake tradition that highlights the generosity of the community.
“It’s blossomed,” she said. “The community is so generous and so giving.”
King will be at the NOTL Community Centre from 10 a.m. to noon on Dec. 19 to collect completed stockings for long-term care residents. She encouraged people to stop by.
“You can see the collection of stockings,” she said. “You’ll be blown away.”
