Christmas is coming for 145 residents at Pleasant Manor and Niagara Long Term Care retirement homes.
For the fourth year in a row, Joan King asked Niagara-on-the-Lake residents to put together stockings for seniors in town to brighten their holiday season.
Started during the COVID-19 lockdowns, King has donated stockings with essential items and a few holiday treats to seniors in care homes who may be spending the Christmas season alone.
More than 100 people from the community reached out and donated a stocking this year, King told The Lake Report.
“I’ve got quite a group. Sometimes they will come with two or three or five (stockings) and some of them are just huge, filled to the brim,” she said.
King said NOTLers are moved by the feeling of loneliness some of the residents experience.
“It’s so heartwarming to see what people in the community do,” she said.
And the happiness it brings residents makes it all worth it.
Along with the care homes in NOTL, King is bringing stockings to individuals who use meals on wheels this year.
“They deliver to about 150 different people and I asked them to specify the people that would be all alone, that will not have visits from family, so we narrowed that down to about 30 (people),” King said.
“It must be an awful feeling, so it’s just a little surprise, a fun thing that they can open up and get some joy,” she said.
Some stockings have activity books, colouring books, markers, stuffy toys and more.
“People think of everything, it’s a nice variety,” King said.
Along with the stockings, residents will receive handmade cards made by NOTLer Amika Verwegen and her four children.
“The cards are so cute and they have little riddles in them. The cards are a tradition that they do as a family,” King said.
Several other donations were made from organizations in NOTL, including 67 stockings from Crossroads Public School kindergarten students and 35 more from the St. Davids Lions Club.
Volunteers from NOTL Palliative Care knit little hearts for each resident and the town of NOTL donated some of their annual holiday cards for each stocking as well.
Hearts were knitted by Marilyn Bartlett, Dena Broeders, Louanne Rudisuela, Jean Stoddart and Lorraine Horton.
On Monday, NEOB Lavender donated several soaps and sprays for the seniors too.
Stockings were gathering at the community centre between 10 a.m. and noon on Monday and delivered shortly afterward.
Martin Mazza, owner of Italian Pizza & Subs will play Santa on Christmas Day, handing out stockings at Pleasant Manor, King said.
