Santa brings gifts for all the good little girls and boys, but it’s nice for older folks to receive gifts, too.
London Drugs has brought back its Stocking Stuffers for Seniors campaign, which launched Nov. 19 and continues until Dec. 10. The campaign is taking place at both stores but is mostly being run out of the Nanaimo North Town Centre location, where the goal is gifts for 1,000 seniors.
“There’s always all the toy drives and stuff out there for kids and the seniors kind of seem to get missed,” said Dana Spilde, sales supervisor at the north end London Drugs. “It’s nice to give back. Everybody that received a gift last year, they were just dumbfounded with excitement. It was such a rewarding feeling to be able to give back to somebody, not even knowing them.”
London Drugs has reached out to places like Nanaimo Seniors Village and Nanaimo Regional General Hospital’s renal unit to come up with Christmas shopping lists, with very specific items for some seniors and more general gift ideas for others.
“We’ll have name tags put on a tree at the front of our store and then customers will come in and pick a tag; they’ll either go in and buy those gifts of use gifts they have at home that are unused,” Spilde said.
Customers then bring the gifts to the London Drugs customer service desk, and store employees will take care of wrapping the gifts and hand delivering them. The tags will have a few items – things like toiletries and cosmetics, socks, robes and blankets, cookies, tea or coffee – and customers are asked to buy as many items as they like. The gifts don’t have to be purchased at London Drugs.
“It’s a charitable thing, so it’s what you can provide, and if you want to provide, great, if not, there’s no pressure,” Spilde said.
She wants the campaign to be bigger and better than ever this year, and said she and her colleagues are “extremely excited” to try to make that happen.
For more information about Stocking Stuffers for Seniors, e-mail DSpilde@londondrugs.com.
editor@nanaimobulletin.com
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