For three years now, local volunteer Connie Todd has gathered gifts to bring Christmas cheer to seniors at assisted living facilities while using her own personal Facebook page to generate donations.
The recipients include the Sharon Care Center in Centralia, where Todd, along with her “elf helpers,” delivered more than 100 presents to residents on Tuesday, Dec. 26.
While the holidays are a joyous time for many, it can get lonely for others, including many who reside in assisted living facilities.
Todd frequently delivers the gifts on Christmas night. By doing it the day after the holiday, she and other volunteers are able to boost the moods of seniors when most visiting family members are already gone.
“They’ve got the presents they were going to get, and some of them don’t get anything, or any visitors. So we come in when they’re bummed out and say, ‘Hey, Merry Christmas. Have a present,’ and they love it,” Todd said. “I was swamped (preparing gifts) yesterday.”
One of her helpers, Jennifer Woodhead, confirmed they were indeed swamped.
“Me and Connie spent two days straight, ‘cause I only have two days off a week, getting presents ready,” Woodhead said. “... At one point, we fell asleep on the pile of presents.”
Prior to the Christmas season, Todd distributed wish lists for seniors to fill out early.
With money being tight these days for many people, Todd added some simply can’t afford to buy gifts for their relatives in the facilities.
Gifts were donated from throughout communities in both Thurston and Lewis counties.
“All these presents are donated from the residents of Centralia, Olympia, Rochester, Oakville, Adna and others. I couldn’t do this without their help,” Todd said.
Everything from Seattle Seahawks gear, warm, fuzzy blankets, slippers and sweaters, candy, cookies and even baby dolls were donated for the seniors, along with wrapping paper and hundreds of gift bags.
Todd doesn’t just bring seniors gifts at Christmastime. She visits them throughout the year and knows many of them personally. She said she does her best to help them deal with loneliness.
“They’re just like the warehouse of the forgotten,” Todd added.
The Sharon Care Center wasn’t the only assisted living facility Todd delivered gifts to on Tuesday, as she also had gifts for seniors at the Chehalis West Assisted Living Center and Prestige Senior Living.
Many of the seniors living in assisted living facilities face depression beyond the holidays, Todd explained.
“You take a woman or a guy who has worked all of their life, they’ve sacrificed for their kids, and then they get to the point when they need a little help living,” Todd said. “And the kids, they either don’t have the skills to take care of them, or the time, or they just don’t want to. Basically, they get sent to old people prison. Everything they had is taken away. They’re told when to eat, when to poop, right on down the line.”
Some also face poor living conditions, including a friend, Todd said, who was living at a Seattle nursing home that ended up getting shut down by the Washington state Department of Social and Health Services.
“It was so bad, I had to call Adult Protective Services,” Todd said.
It represents all the more reason Todd wants to highlight seniors and keep giving them Christmas gifts each year.
She plans to keep giving gifts to seniors every year “until I die,” and hopes someone carries on her work after that. Additionally, she wants to spread her gift-giving efforts to more assisted living facilities in Lewis and Thurston counties.
“I’d like to make it where we can cover every nursing home in the state,” Todd said.
