All Janet Poole wants for the holidays is milk chocolate candy, a toy for her pet birds Tutu and Booboo and a gift card to a grocery store like Newport Avenue Market.

It’s the third year the 72-year-old Mountain Laurel Lodge resident will get a gift from the program called Be a Santa to a Senior, sponsored by Home Instead, a Central Oregon in-home-care franchise business.

Poole, and about 1,000 other Central Oregon senior citizens, will soon receive mostly personalized gifts, delivered to their homes by volunteers who also donated and wrapped the gifts. The program is rooted in the belief that everyone deserves to get something to open during the holidays.

Some seniors ask for rolls of quarters to pay for laundry. Others ask for grocery store gift cards. Blankets, hats, coats and gloves are other items asked for.

“I don’t have any family anywhere, except for one cousin who lives in Port Orange, Florida,” said Poole. “I’m happy to be on the Be a Santa for a Senior list. I don’t get any gifts any more. I’m all by myself.”

How to help

How to help

Volunteers are needed to deliver and to wrap gifts for the senior citizens in Be a Santa to a Senior. Home Instead will host a wrapping party 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Dec. 13 at 10 Barrel East, 62950 NE 18th St.

Home Instead started the program more than 20 years ago as a way to recognize that senior citizens are lonely and often isolated during the holidays.

Too often, senior citizens are overlooked during the holidays and the focus is on children. Nearly a quarter of the population in Central Oregon is 65 and older, according to 2022 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. In Oregon, nearly a quarter of those live alone and the state ranks 23rd in the United States in terms of social isolation, according to the Meals on Wheels America.

How to donate to Santa to a Senior

How to donate

Be a Santa to a Senior trees can be found at the following locations:

Bend Fred Meyer, 61535 S U.S. Highway 97;

Bend Partners in Care, 2075 NE Wyatt Court, Bend;

Bend River Promenade, 3188 N U.S. Highway 97;

Bend Senior Center, 1600 SE Reed Market Road, Bend;

Bend Waypoint Hotel (donation box), 1415 NE Third St., Bend;

Bend Whispering Winds (donation box), 2920 NE Conners Ave, Bend;

La Pine Activity Center, 16450 Victory Way, La Pine;

La Pine Beauty Bar Salon (donation box), 51470 US-97 #3A, La Pine;

La Pine Wetlands Taphouse, 51375 U.S. Highway 97, La Pine;

Madras Chamber of Commerce, 274 SW Fourth St., Madras;

Prineville Erickson’s Thriftway (donation box), 315 NW Third St., Prineville;

Prineville Wild Ride Brew, 1500 NE Third St., Prineville;

Redmond Fred Meyer, 944 SW Veterans Way, Redmond;

Redmond Wild Ride Brew, 332 SW Fifth St., Redmond;

Madras Bowl & Pizza, 66 NE A St., Madras.

Source: Home Instead Senior Care franchise

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that social isolation significantly increases a person’s risk of premature death, rivaling death from smoking, obesity and inactivity.

“Be a Santa to a Senior is one of our favorite times of the year at the Council on Aging,” said Cassie Regimbal, agency executive director. “For some people this may be the only gift they receive, so we strongly encourage people to pick one of those (ornament tags on a tree) to make holidays a little brighter for homebound seniors in Central Oregon.”

The program is designed to help those isolated seniors by asking the community for help, said May Mobbs, Home Instead community relations coordinator. The program has decorated donation trees at 17 locations around Central Oregon. Each ornament represents a senior citizen’s holiday wishes.

“Pet toys are a big ask for the seniors and blankets,” Mobbs said. “We wrap and deliver every gift that is dropped off. We make sure that each senior gets something that they were looking for and something surprising.”

The program partners with Meals on Wheels, the Council on Aging, Central Oregon Veterans Outreach, Hospice of Redmond Partners in Care Hospice, St. Charles Hospice and Housing Works.

The program already has received 200 gifts that the Oregon Youth Challenge students wrapped on Wednesday. Gloria Vloedman, Home Instead director of operations, hopes that more will be coming.

The rest of the gifts will be wrapped at a get-together Dec. 13 at 10 Barrel East, said Vloedman. At the wrapping gathering, volunteers are asked to bring two rolls of wrapping paper.

“We always end up running out halfway through the wrapping party,” Vloedman said. “We want to wrap each of the presents because it’s special to open a gift. You’re never too old for Christmas.”

The volunteers will be checking their list twice to make sure everyone gets something, even if the senior citizen’s ornament wasn’t selected, Mobbs said.

That’s where the large corporate donations come in, and the group purchases gift cards to fulfill gifts on the list, she said.

Jan Bergum, a retired home health nurse, has been a volunteer at Be a Santa to a Senior for 20 years. In that time, she’s wrapped gifts, picked up gifts from store locations, delivered gifts to the homebound senior citizens and helped organize.

“I feel like everyone in the community needs to see all parts of this,” said Bergum, 66. “When you deliver a gift and hear the stories and get the hugs, it’s so special. Some say that if it wasn’t for the program, they’d not get any gifts at all.

“The older they get, the more isolated they get.”

She so thoroughly believes in the program that her three granddaughters help out by sorting packages and wrapping them.

As a self-proclaimed introvert, Poole said she can go for days hanging out in her apartment with her birds Tutu and Booboo. She likes to cook and watch TV.

In the past she’d exchange gifts with friends, but postage became too high. Now she just resorts to email and phone calls.

Last year she got a pair of house slippers and some food. The slippers are still good this year, she said.

“The gifts are a nice surprise,” Poole said. “It lifts my spirits and makes my Christmas.”