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Santas for seniors help spread holiday happiness
By Jeanne Starmack
AUSTINTOWN
Fourteen-month-old Louie Schiavoni was about to help make Christmas happier for 600 senior citizens.
His dad, state Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, usually starts off Be a Santa to a Senior by standing before the Christmas tree and plucking the first paper ornament with the name of a senior citizen who will receive gifts from volunteers.
But this year, Louie was there to do it.
Home Instead Senior Care, an Austintown private business that offers care for seniors who need it, had invited Sen. Schiavoni to Optiview Vision Center on Mahoning Avenue on Monday afternoon to once again start the event it has sponsored for 10 years.
Louie picked one ornament, then decided another one would be even better.
“Do you want two?” his father asked. “OK, we can take two.”
All in all, there are 600 names this year on trees at businesses in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, said Dottie Johntony, operations manager for Home Instead.
People who want to participate can pick a name and return their gift to the same location or to Home Instead at 45 N. Canfield-Niles Road.
Locations are Optiview on Mahoning and in Niles; Walgreen’s at Route 46 and Mahoning in Austintown, and at Meridian Road and Mahoning in Austintown; The Walmart on Elm Road in Warren; and Belle Sole Salon in Boardman.
The Trumbull County Career and Technical Center’s Career for Teaching Paths program takes 125 of the names, Johntony said.
The deadline is Dec. 10 for gift returns. The event culminates with a wrapping party Dec. 12, when volunteers will meet at Home Instead to wrap and package the gifts. The gifts will be delivered Dec. 16.
Johntony said Home Instead collected names from agencies and nursing homes, and the seniors who are included do not have to be clients of the business.
“It’s probably one of the most meaningful things we do all year,” she said.
Seniors who are alone not only get a gift, but also have companionship by spending time with the delivery volunteer, she said.