Many elderly people in our community will be spending Christmas alone which makes for a sad and miserable time of year. Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish is bringing the holiday spirit to them by sponsoring the Fifth Annual Angel Tree for the Seniors, along with assistance from the Carbon County Senior Center Meals on Wheels Program.
Event Organizer, Nancy Labahan talks about how the Angel Tree for Seniors began, “We started it when my 32-year-old son passed away from Hodgkin’s lymphoma and I needed to do something. We had young people come up and tell us some of the kindness that our son extended to them and I was trying to think of how to pay that kindness forward into the community to keep that kindness going. I went to the priest at Notre Dame and said I’ve got to do something, and I asked for help and this is the answer I got.” The first-year the Angel Tree for Senior organizers were able to assist 65 seniors and this year they are looking to serve over 250 individuals.
The program works very closely with both Carbon and Emery County Senior Centers as well as United Way of Eastern Utah. “The Seniors get a wish list that the Senior Center composed and sometimes we have on the bottom that this is a wish list and you may not get everything on it but so far everybody has. We break it down so nobody has a big financial burden in one family. Some people take two or three ornaments, some people take one, but we’ll break it down so its manageable,” said Labahan. Items that some Seniors may request are gloves, hats, lap blankets, slippers, puzzle books, pajamas, and surprisingly, quite a few of the elderly just want a gift card to the grocery store to get food.
Angel ornaments may be chosen at the Notre Dame Hope Center at 185 North Carbon Avenue Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and then again on Tuesday evenings from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. All wrapped gifts need to be returned no later than Monday, December 9.
For further information about the Angel Tree for Seniors please call Nancy Labahan at (435) 637-6195.