50 Seniors Will Have Something to Open for Christmas Thanks to CNY Santa

50 seniors will have something to open for Christmas this year thanks to a Santa in Central New York.

Emily Peters of Lee Center teamed up with friends, family, and coworkers to sponsor 50 seniors with our Santa for Seniors program this year, 9 more than last year. "A big thanks to all my friends and family for helping with my favorite thing to do every year; I appreciate you," said Peters. "Everyone deserves to have a good Christmas."

Santa For Seniors works with the Office for Aging to identify Seniors who are alone during the holidays, often they have no family still living in the area and survive on a very limited income. Their needs are simple things like sweaters, hats, and scarfs or fun things like puzzles and word search books.

Confidentiality laws prohibit us from being able to share photos of the smiling seniors receiving their gifts. In normal years we would be able to share pictures of all the presents dropped off at our studios, but COVID prevented that from happening too.

But here's a look at what gifts for 50 seniors look like. The bins set up outside the Oneida County Office for Aging were empty before Emily arrived to drop everything off.

Emily, thank you for combining the forces and spending hours shopping to make sure everyone had a little something to open during the holidays. And our sincere appreciation to the many people who worked with co-workers and family members to adopt the many seniors on this year's list.

It's not too late to help. The Office for Aging has new residents arriving every day, Gift cards to local grocery stores and retailers like Target and Walmart allow Seniors to get groceries and needed medicines. Email Polly@bigfrog104.com for more information or send us a message through our Facebook page or on our mobile app.