If you’re wanting to help bring a little Christmas cheer to a local senior this year, the Kamloops Centre for Seniors Information is looking to the community for donations and nominations for its Secret Santa Program

Executive Director says the annual program, which has been running for the past 20 years, sees gifts handed out to seniors who may be lonely or isolated during the holiday season.

Brandi Allan says the seniors are nominated by both non-profit organizations and people in the community.

“We try and focus on seniors that do not have family, that are going to be spending the holidays alone, and then we put together a gift for them.”

Each gift is valued between $25 and $50 and contains personal hygiene items, comfort items, and more. Allan explains those gifts are then handed out to the seniors who were nominated.

“There are almost always more people nominated than we can even reach. Everybody always gets something, even if it turns out to be a meal we deliver or a phone call.”

She adds they rely heavily on the community for donations for the Secret Santa program.

“Kamloops has been phenomenal every year, and every year it has gotten a lot bigger,” she said. “The first year I was involved (roughly nine years ago,) we did roughly 75 packages; last year we did just short of 700 packages.”

A streamlined process for donating is thanks to a partnership with London Drugs, explains Allan.

“They do their stocking stuffers for seniors where they put a tree up at London Drugs, and we add tags to the tree for specific seniors looking for things. Then they (customers) pull tags off and purchase the gift and then London Drugs donates all of the gifts to us and we distribute them.”

If people want to donate but do not shop at London Drugs, Allan says there are a handful of other ways to donate as well.

“They can go anywhere in town to purchase a gift they think would be relevant to this program. Then they can drop them off at one of our three locations, during business hours.”

Those three locations include Brock Shopping Centre, North Hills Mall as well as Sunrise on sixth in downtown Kamloops.

She says gifts can be donated during business hours at those three locations or monetarily by coming in and donating cash, using a debit card, or through e-transfer.

As for nominating a senior, Allan says the best way is to call the Kamloops CIS in the Brock Shopping Centre at 778-470-6000 or by emailing info@csikamloops.ca