Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
TAYLORSVILLE — Clutching a box covered in shimmering red wrapping paper, Sheiree Miller walked in the sunshine up the front path of a home she's visited many times in her role as Home Instead's client care coordinator. She knocked lightly on the door.
It didn't take long for Bernicia Bennett to welcome Miller inside and into the room of her bedridden father, 91-year-old Ray Perry Bennett. From his bed, Bennett's eyes lit up with recognition as he watched Miller in her festive Christmas hat enter his room with a smile on her face.
"I've got this present for you from people in the community who wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas," Miller told Bennett as she gently took his hand.
She handed the gift to Bennett, who seemed to hold the present in delight before carefully tearing through the glistening wrapping paper to get to the gift chosen especially for him — a drawing kit with colored pencils and coloring pages.
"How cool is that?" Miller said.
Taking a closer look at the gift in her father's hand, Bernicia Bennett said, "He loves to draw and color. This is so great!"
Miller was there as part of the Be a Santa to a Senior program, with 2.1 million gifts delivered since its inception in 2003 to 750,000 seniors across the U.S.
As a participant with Be a Santa to a Senior, Home Instead is an in-home senior care service that allows older adults to remain in their home with care providers checking in on them rather than moving them to a care facility.
"Our seniors tend to be overlooked," said Miller. "They're isolated at home, alone and are often forgotten. So this is just a way to let them know we love them, care about them and want them to have a happy holiday season."
A mission to bring joy to the forgotten
Miller's office in West Jordan was full of wrapped Christmas presents waiting to be delivered to senior citizens across the Salt Lake Valley who may be in need.
The Be a Santa to a Senior program invites area residents to visit a local gift tree and select an ornament that holds a senior's gift request.
"We select clients that we service here at Home Instead that are in need, so we do have a lot of clients that are low income and really could go without and they don't have a lot of family support," Miller told the Deseret News. "Their means are very limited and so they usually wouldn't be getting anything for Christmas, let alone getting some of their basic needs met."
After a participant purchases the gift and returns it to the delivery box, participating Home Instead offices will collect the gifts and then deliver the presents to aging adults in need. Volunteers wrap the gifts and prepare them for delivery.
Around 65,000 volunteers have participated in the program in the 20 years it has been running, according to the national office.
"Some people ask us why don't you make this more simple and give everyone a generic gift?" Miller said. "We try to personalize it for each senior individually, which makes it special and makes them not feel so alone during the holidays."
The impact of holiday senior service
West Jordan Home Instead owner Dave Parke recalled one of his favorite experiences participating in the project.
He said that while most seniors open the gifts right in front of the volunteers who deliver them, a couple of years ago he went to deliver a gift on Christmas Eve to a woman living in Magna.
Leaving his family behind while they carried on with the tradition of making cookies, Parke said he felt like he needed to deliver that gift.
After he knocked on the woman's door and gave her the present, he recalled she teared up and said, "Thank you so much, but can I please wait and open it tomorrow? I have wanted to have a gift under my tree for so long. This would mean the world to me.
"I haven't opened a gift on Christmas morning in years," he remembered her saying.
Parke told the Deseret News that with tears in his own eyes, he assured the woman that she could definitely wait to open it on Christmas Day.
As seniors tend to be an overlooked population during this time of year, especially those who are living at home, this program brings joy to a group of people who really need it, Miller said.
"The gifts have been very impactful just because you see the look on their face and some of them get emotional which in turn makes me emotional," Miller said. "Some of these seniors don't have any other presents heading their way. The impact this program has is real."
