Christmas Hampers for Elderly in our area

Description

We are all members of An Garda Siochana at Wicklow. Every Christmas we used to run a Christmas party for serior citizens in our area. Covid stopped this. We wanted to continue to do something for the seniors in our area and Garda Juozapaviciene was on probation at the time and had to do a community project. We had a Unit meeting and the idea of Christmas Hampers for Senior citizens in our area came about. We gathered a list of approximately 150 houses (single people and couples) and made hampers and delivered them on Christmas week. We had a very limited budget and we assisted by members of the station party donating brand new unwanted items such as purses, soaps, scarves, hats etc. The hampers contain items like: teabags, mince pies, biscuits, antibacterial soap, playing cards, puzzle book, calender, pens and something extra like a selection box, a pair of gloves, a scarf, bath bombs, hand cream etc. We monitor the list of people and make additions throughout the year.

Aim of Initiative

The aim of the initiative is to give a bit of Christmas joy to Elderly in our community and strenghten our bond with the senior citizens in our community. We have run this for 2 years and hope to keep it going. It is a 6 week project minimum. We get some funding from the local court but are hoping this year to involve some local businesses. Some many elderly people are very lonely, especially at Christmas time and this little token brings a bit of Christmas spirit to them and our station party

Who is it aimed at

The initiative is aimed at senior citizens in our community in Wicklow

3 Steps critical to success

1. Members on the Unit willing to assist with the project
2. small funding being received and station members making donations. same members assisting with preparing the hampers. Local Superintendents input.
3. Start the deliveries around the 15th December in order to have them all done before Christmas.

3 Challenges in Planning / Delivery

1. people willing to assist – we are lucky in that we have very willing people
2. We get a small amount of funding and the rest is donations from members stationed in Wicklow. We are hoping to involve a local business or two this year.
3. The weather and work requirements. The first year we did this the weather was very bad for 2 or 3 days we did deliveries (snow). As a result, it slowed us down, people were less inclined to answer the door, etc. We know to start deliveries at least 10 days before Christmas in case this happens

3 Outcomes / Benefits

1. The main outcome is the happiness it brings the people we deliver to. We have received so many messages, cards and letters from people. The members on deliveries take time to chat with the Senior Citizens. An example of what it means is we did a delivery to a house in 2023 (the second year). A man answered the door and said I cant believe you are calling to me again this year, you have no idea how much it meant last year. A family member has recently died and his wife had been very sick and he was very low. It gave him a huge lift. Thankfully, his wife had made a full recovery. This is the only outcome we want from what we do. To spread a little bit of festive joy to people in our community who deserve just that.
2. Good community spirit
3. encouragement to continue the project for the next year