MIDLAND, Texas — Since the weather outside is frightful, Senior Life Midland is doing something delightful. They set up their annual Warming Tree for the public to drop off donations for homebound seniors to stay warm this winter.
“It is very cold outside, and we are getting a lot of calls from seniors that are cold," said Kathleen Kirwan-Haynie, Executive Director at Senior Life Midland. "We know that our seniors are in need of warming items, everything from socks, slippers, blankets, mid-size heaters, they really need to have just a little warmth in their life."
All the donations dropped off under the tree will be hand-delivered to nearly 500 seniors, along with a meal.
"Then we have volunteers who will come and pick up the items, the meals along with the items that we collect, and they deliver those right to the doors of our homebound seniors," said Kirwan-Haynie.
A warm gesture that makes all the difference.
"Our seniors just love getting these new warming items, and it really helps them out because many times they can't afford to run the heater, or maybe their heater doesn’t work, or they have a draft in the home, so we just want to help them out and let them know they're loved at the same time," said Kirwan-Haynie.
Because after all, spreading love and kindness to those who need it is what the holidays are truly about.
"It also teaches them that at the holidays, I'm not forgotten, people love me and care about me," said Kirwan-Haynie. "Our homebound often times do get forgotten, people don’t see them, and we don’t want them to ever be forgotten, so this is a great time have our volunteers come and pick up warming donations that are given to us for our seniors, and the volunteers love to spread that warmth to the seniors of meals on wheels."
For more information on the organization and how you can do your part to help, click or tap here.