ESTEVAN - The St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation has held a couple of programs in the weeks leading up to Christmas to help local seniors celebrate Christmas.
The first is the annual Secret Santa for Long-Term Care. When people visit sjhf.shop website and click on Secret Santa, they can purchase different gifts for the residents of the long-term care unit, ranging from a resident experience for $20 to a catered meal for residents for $250.
Other options include happy hour ($50), resident outing ($75), flower arrangement ($80), a ride in the SMILE Services van and a trip to an Eagle Sky Estevan Bruins' game ($125) and musical entertainment ($200). The cost is enough for an experience for all of the residents.
"It's something that has morphed over the years into different things," said St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation executive director Lori Gervais. "We started this … where we were out in the public with a tree … where people could specifically choose a resident."
The options are experiences that long-term care residents enjoy. Each gift can have multiple sponsors during the year, so there isn't just one catered meal or one happy hour for the next 12 months.
"They always love a happy hour or a catered meal or different activities that the staff can provide, taking the residents out to a Bruins' game or out to different events in the community," said Gervais.
The staff at long-term care tracks what the residents are interested in, and they were pretty happy with last year's Secret Santa offerings, so the same options were retained this year. But Gervais said they always think about who they have in long-term care, and what are the most helpful and interesting options.
Secret Santa has evolved over the years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was an online store for people looking to donate to the residents.
"It's always well supported. Our community always steps up," said Gervais.
The initiative wrapped up just before Christmas.
Gervais said the support from the community has once again been strong this year, but she recognizes there are other opportunities for donations in the Estevan area.
"We hope that people spread it [the support] around, and some years the support is better than others, but I think there are lots of areas in the community that are looking for support," said Gervais.
The foundation also recently wrapped up its annual tea parties, which are associated with the St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation's Festival of Trees and sponsored by Sun Country Hearing. Gervais said the tea parties have also morphed over the years.
"They used to be part of the Festival of Trees weekend, and we would bring as many residents as we could to Affinity Place to take them down onto the ice surface and see the beautiful setup for Festival of Trees and celebrate the trees themselves."
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the foundation found their best option was to safely bring those tea parties to the residents.
"It wasn't always easy to get all of the residents there [to Affinity Place], or we can't get all of the residents there, especially on a weekend. During COVID, when we took everything into the nursing homes and the special care homes, we've continued that, even though the pandemic is over. I find that we have a better time in their own home environment, and bringing it to them is much less stressful for them."
The tea parties are always well attended and lots of fun. Gwen Van De Woestyne has done a great job as the chairwoman for the tea parties committee, Gervais said. Local musicians donate their time to sing and play the piano, or play old-time music.
The first tea party this year was at Estevan Diversified Services, which Gervais said is one of their best-attended and most lively tea parties of the year. Then they went to Mainprize Manor in Midale, and the care homes in Estevan, including long-term care, Hill View Manor, Creighton Lodge and the Estevan Regional Nursing Home.
Each person gets a gift bag thanks to the support of the sponsors. The residents always look forward to the events.
"It's the Christmas season, so it's always nice to give that way, and entertainment itself is always good. We go in and spend a little time and have a little visit and let everybody know why we're out and about and spreading Christmas cheer. As far as I can tell, the residents are always happy to see us and spend a couple of hours with us."
