Granting holiday wishes: Program provides gifts for residents in homes

By RUTH RICE
The Tribune-Democrat

November 18, 2005 12:55 pm

— One red Christmas sweatshirt, size medium.
That item might not seem like much to someone who wakes up Christmas morning with a mountain of gifts beneath his or her tree, but to a lonely personal-care or nursing-home resident, it can mean the world.
The Presents for Patients program seeks to match residents in personal-care and nursing homes with individuals and families in the community who will deliver items from the residents’ wish lists during the holiday season.
Arbutus Park Retirement Community, 207 Ottawa St., Richland Township, will be the headquarters for Presents for Patients in Cambria County.
Alicia Jarvie, activities director at Arbutus and coordinator for Presents for Patients, said residents in personal-care and nursing homes often have no family or their families live far away.
Participation in Presents for Patients can help fill the void.
This will be the first time the program has been centered at Arbutus.
In past years, it has been headquartered at Laurelwood Care Center in Upper Yoder Township and Rebekah Manor in Geistown Borough.
“It has been at other facilities where I worked,” Jarvie said. “I found out about it five years ago. It’s a wonderful program.”
Jarvie and her staff also will coordinate Presents for Patients efforts for residents in Maple Winds Care Center, Portage; Rebekah Manor, Ebensburg; Rose of Sharon Home, St. Michael; and South Fork Welcome Home.
Jarvie and her staff have sent 500 letters to businesses, churches and social groups asking for their help in the program.
Residents are asked to complete a wish list, giving their names, ages, genders, whether they are allowed food as gifts, whether they enjoy visits by children and any other special interests they have.
The form asks for sizes and colors of slippers or socks, sweatshirts, and pajamas or nightgowns. It also asks for favorite candies, snacks or cookies; and lotions, powders or colognes.
A few extra spaces are included for other gift ideas. Each resident is asked to choose three or more.
“We’ve had a lot of fun,” Jarvie said. “The staff knows the residents, and for those unable to tell us, we contact family members or ask the nursing staff.”
Some items requested so far are pullover tops, sweatsuits, fleece pajamas, nightgowns, leather slippers and glittery holiday sweaters for women.
It costs between $5 and $25 to fill a typical wish list.
Not all requests have fit into the categories on the form.
One resident wanted to give up the wishes to a less-fortunate child in the community. Another wanted the red Radio Flyer wagon he never got as a child. Yet another wanted to update a video collection.
The most unusual request came from a resident who wanted to meet Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Jarvie has notified St. Barnabas Charities in Gibsonia, Allegheny County, where Presents for Patients was founded.
“We’ll try to grant the Big Ben wish,” Jarvie said. “It might be difficult during football season, but maybe after. We won’t forget about it.”
Jarvie also hopes to contact area restaurants for gift certificates for residents who enjoyed going out to eat in the past, but who can no longer do so.
“We hope to set it up in their room as a romantic dinner for two,” Jarvie said.
After residents fill out their wish lists, members of the public who wish to participate in the program are given a patient-information form listing the resident’s name, gift preferences and the facility where he or she is living.
Jarvie and her staff will try to match buyers and recipients geographically.
Jarvie is asking that donor cards be selected by Dec. 1 so that gift-delivery arrangements can be made.
This also gives Jarvie and her staff time to buy presents for residents who are not matched with a donor.
“Everyone will receive a present,” she said.
Jarvie is encouraging buyers to deliver their gifts a week or two before Christmas.
Those too busy to shop but wanting to contribute may send a check made out to the Presents for Patients or buy a special woven blanket with the Presents for Patients logo for $30 to be given to a resident.
Gift buyers also may call Jarvie or a committee member at Arbutus. Members are Rick Wilson, administrator; Pat Hall, nursing director; Veronica Hordubay, administrative assistant; Florence Davenport, development director; Kathy Friedel, personal-care administrator; and Marian Yaple, a resident.
“We’ll take down their information and match them with a resident,” Jarvie said.
In addition to filling the items on a resident’s wish list, a buyer is encouraged to visit with his or her gift recipient.
“We want people to get over that, ‘Oh, no, a nursing home,’ feeling,” Jarvie said. “We want them to see it as a good experience. We are homelike and have a friendly, caring staff.
“They can come in and see it’s not as they perceived it.”
Scouts and other civic groups also may volunteer to fill residents’ wish lists and to help wrap and deliver presents.
Jarvie said residents are loving the idea of Presents for Patients, and the staff is enthusiastic as well.
Residents are looking forward to meeting different people and seeing some children come to visit.
“They like the idea that the staff is involved in helping to grant Christmas wishes at different facilities,” Jarvie said.
Nov. 10 was the kickoff for Presents for Patients at Arbutus. State Rep. Ed Wojnaroski, D-Johnstown, was master of ceremonies.
Wojnaroski lit the Arbutus Christmas tree, which is decorated with wish-list cards, and distributed Christmas stockings to residents.
Residents from other participating personal-care or nursing homes were transported to Arbutus to take part in the festivities.
Those who attended could take a card off the tree, fill it out and leave it for Jarvie and her staff.
One wish has been granted.
Julia Walker, an Arbutus resident, loves to shop. Her wish was for a day of shopping.
Pat Boratko of Johnstown, a licensed practical nurse at Arbutus, agreed to take Walker on a shopping spree on Dec. 16.
Jarvie is beginning to realize what a big undertaking she has assumed.
There are 176 residents at Arbutus, and she also is responsible for getting presents for patients at the other facilities.
“I want to try to make it a good, memorable experience for the residents and the community,” Jarvie said. “We feel good about doing something for others, and I know the end result will be successful.”
The love and sharing that Presents for Patients symbolizes is growing.
When the program began in 1984, it matched 450 patients in eight facilities with gifts and visits.
Last year, more than 22,000 patients in 253 facilities received some type of Christmas generosity.

Ruth Rice can be reached at 532-5052 or rrice@tribdem.com.

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.