I have a new favorite holiday recipe. It’s a recipe for community connectedness and widespread good cheer.
Gather all these ingredients, and combine thoroughly:
- One Berrien Community Foundation willing to coordinate “Operation Senior Care Kits.” Preparations and planning began in July.
- Two Area Agency on Aging and Meals on Wheels teams scouring client lists to identify seniors most isolated and in need of a holiday boost. No naughty and nice lists here – just fellow citizens who could benefit from knowing their community cares about them.
- Seven community foundation staffers navigating the wilds of supply chain shortages to secure a wide assortment of goodies aimed to provide wintertime care and good cheer. The North Pole elves have nothing on this crew.
- Ten volunteers to sort and prep thousands of items for packing.
- Hundreds of volunteers – including 74 families, Kiwanis club members, a Girl Scout troop, one Readiness Center class (… and a partridge in a pear tree) – to sort, pack and wrap nearly 800 holiday packages and handwrite notes of cheer for seniors. Braving paper cuts and writers’ cramps, volunteers pour love and care into each note and carefully wrapped box.
- Ten AAA and Senior Nutrition Services staff to load oodles (that’s a technical term – look it up) of cars, vans and delivery trucks with brightly wrapped packages destined for homebound and isolated seniors.
- One local logistics company willing to geo-route the home addresses of hundreds of seniors spanning all corners of Berrien County. Resulting in a delivery route planning strategy even Santa would envy.
- Thirty volunteer elves to hand-deliver winter care kits to seniors along with a large side of smiles and holiday cheer. The care kits contain basic self-care items like hand lotion, but also some safety things like flashlights, a first aid kit, nightlights, hand sanitizer and non-slip socks – and some fun things like puzzle books and candy.
- Nearly 800 seniors receiving what, for some of them, is the only holiday package they’ll receive this year. For all of them, it’s a tangible expression of care and connectedness from a community that hasn’t forgotten them.
I have been a part of making this special holiday concoction for the past five years. This year, however, I added an extra ingredient:
- One special friend willing to drive along with me to deliver some of those packages.
Three days before Christmas, we loaded my friend’s SUV with boxes, and armed ourselves with a list of addresses. We set out to spread cheer, but, as is often the case, we were blessed by the goodwill reflected back to us from the people we aimed to cheer.
House by house, as we knocked on doors, rang bells and presented packages, we were greeted by surprise, delight and many “bless your hearts” and “thank God for people like you” and one “I’m saving this for Christmas morning. It will be so good to have something to open. Thank you!”
Inviting us in out of the cold, one of the seniors told about the lessons she learned from her mother. Sitting in her wheelchair in the center of her cozy kitchen, Brenda passed on her mother’s teaching.
“No matter how little or how much you have, it’s important to give. It’s the spirit of the gift that matters, not the amount,” Brenda said. “I was raised to be a giver. I don’t have much to give right now, but I give you this … bless you. Bless you today, bless you tomorrow, and bless you always. Thank you for making my day.”
You made my day right back, Brenda. Thank you.
If you played any part in this large community effort, know the smiles, good wishes, “thank you!” and “bless your hearts!” we received were aimed at you as well.
If you want to be a part of community connectedness like this, you don’t have to wait until “Operation Senior Care Kits” 2022. You can volunteer now from the comfort of your own home by becoming a Friendly Caller and make weekly connections with an isolated senior. Or be a “Zoom Host” on a virtual class for seniors.
You can learn about those, and other opportunities, by calling the Campus for Creative Aging at 982-7748.
Still need ideas? Check out United Way of Southwest Michigan’s website for a list of community volunteer opportunities – including distributing water to Benton Harbor residents. You can find those opportunities at www.uwsm.org/volunteer.
Watch Berrien Community Foundation’s website – www.berriencommunity.org – for information on next year’s senior care kit project and other ways to get involved throughout the year.
In whatever way you chose to engage, from contributing financial resources to meet local needs, to doing hands-on volunteer work, your generosity and thoughtfulness will brighten the lives of many. Including your own.
To quote my new friend, Brenda. “Bless you today, bless you tomorrow, and bless you always.”