Innisfil's Sonia DaSilva knows how hard the holidays can be for some, especially seniors living alone, or vulnerable women and children at local shelters.
Since 2017, she has organized a holiday card campaign, collecting letters and notes from local residents to deliver to seniors in town. She does it for every holiday — Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter.
"I've always concentrated on local seniors. This year, however, I want to extend to the shelters. Those women need some extra love, too," DaSilva said.
DaSilva has put together Christmas Card kits, available to community members at no charge, each filled with enough paper, glitter, glue and stickers to create 10 festive cards. She hopes residents will pick up a kit, or create their own homemade cards, to bring a smile to recipients in these dark times.
The cards, if dropped off before Dec. 10, will be delivered to Lakeside Retirement Residence in Alcona and to the Barrie Women and Children's Shelter.
For this holiday season, she is hoping to receive hundreds of cards from community members, including educational assistant at Lake Simcoe Public School, Kerri Server who has invited each child at the Innisfil school to create a card.
Every year, the students normally visit Lakeside Retirement Home on Innisfil Beach Road to sing carols with the residents.
This year, that isn't possible, so when Server saw DaSilva's post on Facebook regarding the card campaign, she immediately contacted the principal of the school Jennifer Henderson, suggesting the students write cards in lieu of carolling.
Henderson was on board with the idea and Server reached out to the students who are excited to take part in the card-making.
DaSilva is hoping to deliver at least 200 cards to Lakeside alone, "at least to give one to each senior and the staff."
Her inspiration? When she dropped off Valentine's Day cards to the residence, one senior told her that he hadn't received a card since the passing of his wife 10 years ago.
Anyone interested in making a card, or interested in receiving cards, can contact DaSilva directly by email at [email protected].
