Santa to bring joy to 170 Carson City area seniors Saturday thanks to Friends to All
Thanks to kind community donations, Santa will be bringing a bit of Christmas Joy Saturday to homebound and low-income seniors often left out during this seasonal celebration.
“I cannot believe the number of donations we received this year – so much more than we could anticipate," said Gwen Pradere, found of Friends to All, Inc.
Started 18 years ago, each year the donations and list of seniors without family has grown as have the number of volunteers who visit the seniors to distribute gifts.
The donations this year far exceeded expectations and was the largest ever. Pradere is so grateful to this giving community. Some offices, such as the Nevada State Division of Forestry, decided this year to collect gifts for this project for their annual giving. They filled an entire donation box at the Carson City Chamber office.
Today, 56 volunteers will assemble into 14 teams of four — each team will be comprised of a Santa Claus and three elves — and the purple bags donated by Purple Avocado will be full of items seniors will find useful. Many of the seniors are recipients of the Meals on Wheels program and are housebound.
Pradere obtains the list of seniors from RSVP and those who call stating they know a senior who would appreciate a visit from Santa. Thanks to the growing publicity, the phone calls continue to come in.
This year’s theme for the annual event is “Touching Hearts with Each Visit.” Pradere states this annual project “brings so much cheer and touches so many senior hearts that it brings tears of joy to her and the volunteers.”
— Writer Ronni Hannaman is the Executive Director of the Carson City Chamber of Commerce
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