Santa's sleigh slow to reach seniors

AUSTIN (KXAN) - It is an unfortunate fact of life that sometimes Santa gets behind. When that happens, we all think of the children who will be disappointed, but the truth is that senior citizens can suffer, too.

Nationwide, the “ Be a Santa to a Senior ” program annually distributes 1.2 million gifts to more than 700,000 isolated senior citizens who would otherwise see Christmas pass them by.

For the past six years, the Austin area “Be a Santa to a Senior” effort has paid off well for local seniors. This year, however, things are slow.

“This is a hard year for us,” said Denise Thomas, the director of the program. Thomas is also the owner and director of the Home Instead Senior Care company in Austin which is teaming up with Walgreens stores and Meals on Wheels and More to administer the Senior Santa effort.

“We've only raised,” she said, “about 30 percent of all the gifts that we need to make the program a success and to make sure that we can deliver gifts to the seniors that need them the most.”

Among those seniors is 100 year-old Fannie Simnacher who lives in a small 19th century cabin not far from the Austin Bergstrom International Airport. Simnacher knows the cabin well because she was born in it on August 19, 1912. The childhood she experienced there was, in many ways, delightful.

“We used to feed the birds,” she recalled. “I like that, seeing all the birds. There are so many birds.

“This is the second best bird watching place in Travis County. You know, a lot of people come down here to watch the birds.”

Growing up, though, Fannie and her parents, William and Emma Sneed, did more than just look at birds and other critters.

“You know, I'm on the river and a creek. We used to eat a lot of doves. Chickens, we had chickens. I ate fish all the time.”

But now, when Fannie Simnacher eats, it’s through the good graces of Meals on  Wheels and More.

“I don't think I could make it,” she said, “because I couldn't cook all that food. And you have to have a good diet to live long; you've got to have a good diet. And I couldn't make it without them, I don't think.”

And because Simnacher qualifies for the Meals on Wheels and More agency, she is also eligible for the “Be a Santa to a Senior” program.

It works this way: Shoppers at area Walgreens stores pick up a paper “ornament” on which is written the name of a senior. They then do some shopping for things like socks, gloves and blankets. After paying for the goods and checking out, the shopper puts the items and the ornament in a bag which they then drop in a box in the store. Volunteers collect the bags, wrap the gifts and make the deliveries.

Another option is to go online to the “Be a Santa to a Senior” website and make a monetary donation there. The volunteers will then use your donated money to do the shopping for you.

The deadline for all of this is Tuesday night, but Thomas says volunteers will keep on working as long as donations keep coming.

“I think what we don't realize,” she said, “is that a lot of seniors are alone. And, you know, they may have really great memories from when they were younger, about Christmas.

“So it can bring up a lot of things for them, especially if they've lost a spouse or don't have family around. So the holidays can actually be tougher times for them.”

As for Fannie Simnacher, she’s not asking for much, just some odds and ends.

“I don’t want people to spend a lot of money on me,” she said. “'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.' That's what I think about all the time. And when I get in a tight place, I always say, 'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.' And that gets me over it.”

Perhaps the Lord could offer Santa a bit of boost over the next few days.