Around 250 seniors will be receiving a bit of holiday joy this season, as the Cloverdale London Drugs nears the end of its Stocking Stuffers for Seniors program.
“It feels really good, to get to help a little bit,” said Jill Church, assistant store manager at London Drugs. “Especially for some of the seniors that don’t get visitors.
“Some of them don’t get any visitors at all, so it’s just kind of nice to know that someone is thinking about them at Christmas time.”
The Cloverdale program is part of a London Drugs-wide endeavour to bring holiday cheer to seniors.
For the last three years the Cloverdale London Drugs has set up a small tree in its store, decorated with the wish lists of seniors from different retirement homes. This year, residents of Cloverdale’s Zion Park Manor and South Surrey’s Rosemary Heights Seniors Village sent in their Christmas lists to be filled.
The Christmas lists included things like plastic golf clubs, wooden maracas, sing-a-long CDs and trivia books. One woman wanted a calendar of different cabins; another wished for an animal bingo set.
“Nothing really extravagant,” Church said. “Just little niceties.”
People who wanted to buy for the seniors could simply pick a tag off the tree, shop for the gifts (either in London Drugs or elsewhere), then return the unwrapped gifts and tag to the store.
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The program started in mid-November, and Church said she had “lots of tags gone.” But the tree was located at the back of the store, and some customers worried that not enough people would find it, taking to social media to spread the word.
Two days ago, Church moved the tree to the front of the store. Since then, the number of tags has come down to about 30.
“We want to make sure everybody gets their wishes filled,” she said. “The community is awesome with that. A lot of people have been coming back the last three years.”
All tags and gifts have to be returned to Cloverdale’s London Drugs (17685 64 Ave), by Monday, Dec. 10. After that, a number of store volunteers will sort and count the presents to make sure every senior got what was on their list. And if someone was missed?
“I’ve been very, very fortunate. I’ve never had that,” Church said. “But if we did, London Drugs … as management or the store, we would fulfill that.”
In the following week, volunteers will deliver the presents to Zion Manor and Rosemary Heights Seniors Village — although they won’t be given out to the seniors until Christmas.
“Everyone is so appreciative,” Church said. “It’s a nice thing.”
For more information, or to fulfill one of the senior’s Christmas lists, visit London Drugs at 17685 64 Ave.
grace.kennedy@cloverdalereporter.com
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