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While the elderly may be too old for a visit from Santa, 30 senior members of the community will be paid a visit by someone bearing gifts this Christmas.
The gift bags, put together by Friends of the Mahurangi East Library from donated goods, will be distributed by Age Concern Rodney.
A member of the friends group, Jenny Bartlett, known as the Crazy Bag Lady, was a key driver behind the initiative and says it’s addressing a bigger picture issue.
“Often elderly people are very lonely in their homes, so paying them a visit with a present is a nice surprise for them,” Jenny says.
“There are a lot of people in this position, though, that we don’t know about. I hope an exercise like this will remind people to check on their neighbours.”
Each of the 30 bags being given out contains about four items and a couple of cards, all collected at the library over three weeks.
Jenny organised the sewing of the 30 fabric bags and is no stranger to such exercises.
She picked up her nickname after sewing bed linings for babies following the Christchurch earthquake and then hot water bottle covers for low-decile school students.
Last year, she made 250 Santa sacks for St John and she runs sewing workshops locally for children.
