WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — One West Sacramento resident is making the 2020 holiday season a little brighter by collecting and distributing Christmas cards to elderly folks at local nursing homes.
Suzanne Johnson said she started making cards herself for the 80 residents at River Bend Nursing Center in West Sacramento.
"It was just going to be an activity I was going to do...I started making cards because I do a lot of crafting," Johnson said. "When I realized I only had about six made after a few days, I realized it was too big a project just for me."
Johnson knew she would need a whole lot more help from the community, so she posted on Nextdoor and Facebook to try and garner some interest.
"I figured it was maybe going to be three or four people, and I initially started out doing individualized responses," Johnson said. "In less than 15 minutes, I was inundated with people who were like 'Oh yeah, we want to help!'"
The card collecting began the week of Thanksgiving. Now, just about three weeks later, Johnson said there are just shy of 300 Christmas cards (297 to be exact) ready to be sent to elderly folks in need.
There are cards from, well, everyone. Kids who drew pictures, people who designed penguin-themed cards, generic cards made more personal with notes and holiday wishes.
Meals on Wheels even agreed to have some cards delivered alongside meals to elderly folks. Other than that collaboration, Johnson is delivering cards to two local care facilities herself. She said she's hoping they will have enough so that people get two cards.
"It's nice to get one, but I thought, gee, it would be nice to get two 'cause they may not be getting anything," Johnson said.
Friday, Dec. 11 was the deadline Johnson set for receiving cards. She said she wants to make sure the cards have time to rest and decontaminate, just to be safe since they are going to high-risk people.
Johnson is no stranger to what elderly folks in nursing homes are feeling during the holiday season.
"When I was in college, I used to work at a nursing home in the activities program during the summers and Christmas vacations," Johnson said. "So I know what the residents kind of go through and especially how important Christmas is, and with this year being kind of shutdown, you know, they're not getting any visitors."
Johnson made sure to reach out to her local nursing homes and care facilities beforehand to learn what the rules were for sending cards. Even in the midst of her current campaign to bring Christmas cheer to those most in need of it, Johnson is also looking ahead.
"Hopefully, this pandemic thing is gonna get over soon, but who knows. Maybe we can do something for Valentine's Day."
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