Santa-gram

Santa-Gram 2022 has launched! Get involved by December 2nd

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Home Instead are accepting items to be included in the ‘Santa-grams’ until 2nd December. If your organisation, church or community group would like to receive Santa-grams, or if you are a school or organisation would like to get involved, contact Julie Ingham on 01422 292424 or email julie.ingham@homeinstead.co.uk

Home Instead Calderdale’s annual Santa-gram Christmas gifting scheme has launched to give older people something to smile about during the festive season and help alleviate loneliness.

Children’s Christmas Cards

The team at Home Instead Calderdale are working with seven primary schools across Halifax, Sowerby Bridge and Brighouse, one after-school club and two Calderdale knitting groups to make gifts. The children will be putting their creative talent to good use, designing Christmas cards and decorations and the older children will be writing letters to donate to older people across Calderdale.

 

 

Local community group, The Calder Quilters and the Knit & Natter Group at St. Andrews Methodist Church in Halifax were delighted to get involved in this year’s Christmas Santa-gram campaign, creating some much needed quilted blankets and knitted muffs for older people to help keep them warm this winter. Last year Home Instead received 1,452 Santa-grams and the team hopes to smash that record this year!

Quilts and Twiddle Muffs from Calder Quilters

Every year Home Instead receive many heart-warming comments from members of the elderly community on receiving their Santa-grams.  One such comment was: “Thank you so much for the Santa-gram I received just before Christmas. Being a pensioner living on my own with no family it brightened my day it means a lot to know that there are kind people out there who want to support ageing people in the community this winter. I hadn’t heard of Home Instead so who knows in the future you may be someone to turn to, if needed.”

Since starting the campaign two years ago during the COVID pandemic lockdown, Home Instead has delivered thousands of Santa-grams to members of the local community.

Commenting on the festive campaign, owner of Home Instead Calderdale Munaf Patel said, “A lot of older people in the community are missing out on the companionship, care, and love that many of us simply take for granted. We want to do something to help, and the campaign is a nice way to bring several different generations together.”

Calder Quilters meet fortnightly at The Maurice Jagger Centre, Halifax and their Chairperson commented, “We heard about Home Instead’s Santa-gram Campaign and approached them to see how we might get involved.  As a result our members have been busy creating quilted lap blankets, backed with fleece to help elderly people stay warm this winter and a set of Twiddle Muffs which make great presents for people with dementia, who find it comforting to keep their hands and fingers occupied.”

Margaret Caulfield of the Knit & Natter Group at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church, Huddersfield Road, Halifax, said, “Given the worrying Cost of Living Crisis, we wanted to do something to help some of the people who will be worrying about their heating costs this winter.  We welcomed the chance to get involved with Home Instead’s Santa-gram campaign and our members have been busy creating warm blankets and muffs for the elderly.”

Home Instead are accepting items to be included in the ‘Santa-grams’ until 2nd December. If your organisation, church or community group would like to receive Santa-grams, or if you are a school or organisation would like to get involved, contact Julie Ingham on 01422 292424 or email julie.ingham@homeinstead.co.uk

Santa-gram campaign brings Christmas cheer once more to Calderdale!

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Home Instead Senior Care Calderdale’s second Santa-gram campaign has been a great success, spreading Christmas cheer to elderly people across the local area.

Launched in November, Home Instead’s Santa-gram campaign reached out to primary schools across Calderdale to ask school children to create a special Christmas card or letter for an elderly person this Christmas.

Most of our elderly population have experienced isolation and loneliness this year due to COVID-19, with many continuing to isolate over the Christmas period.

The home care company, which provides companionship, housekeeping and personal care to people in their own homes was overwhelmed by the result. They had seventeen local schools and one after school club sign up to the campaign, receiving 1452 Christmas cards which were all decorated, or hand drawn by children from ages four to 11.

They also received a further 389 items including bookmarks, letters, pictures, decorations and riddles, to be distributed along with their cards.

Morrison’s supermarket in Elland, Halifax and Kershaws Garden Centre in Brighouse also got involved, with customers donating presents to the campaign.

The Santa-grams were packed into envelopes and delivered along with the presents to assisted living facilities, churches and community groups including Memory Lane and Riverside Dementia Cafés, Age UK, Halifax Blind Society, the Royal British Legion and Making Space – the carer’s wellbeing service.

The company also teamed up with local pharmacies who helped to distribute the Santa-grams to their network of customers that receive home delivery of their medication.

A local resident phoned in after receiving her Santa-gram to say:

“Thank you for our lovely Christmas surprise.  It was so kind of you to take the time making them for us. I am sending you a photo of your decorations in house they are lovely.”

“Lovely Christmas card delivered by my local pharmacy.  It was beautiful and really made my day.”

Munaf Patel, Director at Home Instead Calderdale said:

“Since the reopening from lockdown in July, many of the community groups which serve the elderly have still not restarted their meetings and as result a lot of older people are missing out on the companionship, care and love that many of us simply take for granted.  We wanted to do something to help out and this is a nice way to bring two different generations together.”

John and Margaret Avison receiving their Santa-gram from Home Instead.

Arthur Butler, aged 100 receiving his Santa-gram from Home Instead

Santa-Grams ready to be packed

  To find out more about Home Instead Calderdale and the home care services they provide, including live-in care, please call 01422 292424 or visit https://www.homeinstead.co.uk/calderdale/.

Home Instead launches second Santa-gram campaign to help bring some festive cheer to the elderly!

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Home Instead are asking children in local primary schools to join their second Santa-gram campaign by using their creative talents to design Christmas cards for elderly people in Calderdale.

Read this on the Home Instead webpage

Deadline to send your Santa-gram is December 3rd

Last year’s campaign was a fantastic success with over 1,000 Santa-grams delivered to more than 500 older people: both those still living at home and some care home residents.

According to Age UK, Christmas is the loneliest time of the year for over 1.5 million older people, with those who have lost a loved one struggling the most.

After this most difficult of years with many clubs and church groups still cautious about meeting, this provider of home care to the elderly and the vulnerable decided to repeat their campaign to help relieve some of the loneliness felt by many elderly people across our community.

The Santa-gram campaign involves children at local primary schools creating Christmas cards, drawings, bookmarks, puzzles or writing a letter to an older person to open in the run up to Christmas to help bring a smile to their day.  The Santa-grams will be delivered to elderly people during the first two weeks of December.

Home Instead Senior Care Calderdale will be working in partnership with local community groups and charities such as Age UK, Memory Lane Dementia cafes, local care homes and assisted living facilities for the elderly to deliver the Santa-grams in time for Christmas.

Munaf Patel, Director at Home Instead Calderdale said:

“Since the reopening from lockdown in July, many of the community groups which serve the elderly have still not restarted their meetings and as result a lot of older people are missing out on the companionship, care and love that many of us simply take for granted.  We wanted to do something to help out and this is a nice way to bring two different generations together.”

Here is one of the many comments we received last year about the campaign:

“Thank you so much for arranging for these (Santa-grams) to be sent out to us. The cards are so good with lovely artwork by the children.  It has really cheered us both up.  When we opened up the surprise we both got a very warm feeling inside and it really did make us smile.  The jokes had us both laughing.”

Home Instead are accepting items to be included in the ‘Santa-grams’ from now until 3 December   If your organisation, church or community group would like to receive Santa-grams, contact Julie Ingham, Community Engagement Officer at Home Instead Senior Care Calderdale on 01422 292424 or email Julie.ingham@homeinstead.co.uk

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