SURPRISE, ARIZ., Jan. 7, 2014 – The holidays can be an especially tough time for older adults living alone or without family close by.
Sun Health’s SHINE (Sun Health Involvement Never Ends) group and Banner Olive Branch Senior Center (BOBSC) joined together in December to bring good cheer to 35 homebound adults living in Sun City and Youngtown, Arizona.
All of the adults are clients of BOBSC’s mobile meals program, which offers home-delivered meals to people in need. Many of these women and men live alone or have limited or no family living in the area.
The SHINE committee, made up of Sun Health employees and residents from Sun Health’s three senior living communities, held a six-week-long drive to raise funds to buy gifts for the 35 adults, who provided a list of gift ideas, most of which were very modest. The gifts—ranging from gift cards, to clothing, to books—were purchased and wrapped by SHINE team members and delivered to the recipients by BOBSC employees and volunteers the week of Christmas.
Mary Giarratano was touched by her gift consisting of two large-print books. The Sun City resident has limited mobility and spends most of her time at home reading or listening to the radio. “This is very nice,” she said.
Bob Boylan of Youngtown was moved to write a letter and even a poem to thank Sun Health for his Fry’s Supermarket gift card. “I appreciate it (the gift) very much and will put it to good use,” Boylan wrote.
“Our SHINE committee members were excited to bring some joy to members of the community this holiday season. It was a very rewarding activity,” said Jennifer Drago, Sun Health executive vice president of Population Health and chair of the SHINE Committee.
About Banner Olive Branch Senior Center
For more than 25 years, the Banner Olive Branch Senior Center has been a safe and friendly place for residents in the Sun Cities to socialize, have a hot meal and participate in free activities, five days a week.
About Sun Health
A long-standing champion for healthy living, nonprofit Sun Health is a community-based health care organization providing “pathways to population health” through philanthropy, senior living, community health programs and superior health care. Population health aims to improve the health of an entire population. Learn more at www.SunHealth.org.
