Bring holiday joy to a lonely, needy senior

The 2012 gift-wrapping party at the Annandale Fire Station.

Home Instead Senior Care of Annandale’s Be a Santa to a Senior program is in full swing.

This program brings together local residents, merchants, schoolchildren, and community groups to provide gifts and holiday cheer to needy and lonely elderly people who are otherwise unlikely to be remembered during the holiday season.

Participating businesses throughout Fairfax County have trees or baskets with paper ornaments that list a senior’s name and gift preference. Members of the public are encouraged to select an ornament, purchase a gift, and bring it to that location or to the Home Instead office at 7058 Columbia Pike, Annandale, by Dec. 13. Do not wrap your gifts.

In the Annandale area, you can pick up an ornament at Pro Maxx Fitness, next door to Home Instead, or at Smith & Clarkson’s Deli in the Ravensworth Shopping Center, Springfield.

The public is invited to a huge gift-wrapping party Dec. 17, 5-8 p.m.,  at the Annandale Fire Station’s Ossian Hall, 7128 Columbia Pike. Elvis (in the form of local tribute artist Lionel Ward) will provide the entertainment.

This year, two elementary schools are participating in the Be a Santa to a Senior program, Ravensworth Elementary in Annandale and Churchill Road Elementary in McLean, along with the Annandale Women’s Club, the Sweet Adelines, ReMax, and several other businesses and organizations.

Volunteers will deliver the wrapped gifts to seniors Dec. 23.