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The SENIOR SANTA Program was started about 5 years ago, by Cindy Rigg.  Cindy, a paralegal and the Coordinator of the District Attorney’s Juvenile Prosecution Unit, was in K-Mart one day and saw a Christmas tree with Christmas ornaments on it.  The ornaments contained the names of local senior citizens and items on that persons Christmas wish list.  The tree ornaments she saw were placed there by Home Instead as part of their their Be a Santa to a Senior program. The Home Instead Be a Santa to a Senior program seeks to provide gifts to seniors who are alone or impoverished to ensure they receive some cheer and support around the holidays. 

Cindy proceeded to remove all the ornaments from the tree and took them home where she asked family and friends if they would like to participate.  Soon word got out around the Dauphin County Courthouse about Cindy’s mission to buy gifts.  She called it her SENIOR SANTA program.  In almost no time at all, various Dauphin County departments joined in to lend a hand for this noble effort.

Cindy’s co-worker in the Juvenile Prosecution Unit (and her right hand Senior Santa partner), Beth Miller-Lopez, describes what it means to her to participate in the program. “It is so rewarding and sometimes heartbreaking to look through the ornaments and pick out the ones you want to shop for.  It is truly and amazing to hear the stories of the shoppers and how much time they took to get that one special gift.”

What started out as one woman’s mission, has blossomed into a yearly event in Dauphin County.  Cindy now has many elves around the courthouse buying gifts every year.  Cindy no longer has to go to K-Mart to find the tree ornaments.  Now the ornaments come to her.  When Home Instead heard about all of the ornaments on the tree being ‘swiped’ 5 years ago, they quickly tracked Cindy down to ensure she wasn’t just someone taking the ornaments and throwing them away.  They were quickly impressed with the results of Cindy’s networking skills.  Now they bring the ornaments directly to Cindy and her crew of Senior Santas.  The Dauphin County Senior Santa program is now the largest contributor to Home Instead’s Be a Santa to a Senior program.  This year the Be a Santa to a Senior program prepared approximately 3000 ornaments overall. 

The picture accompanying this story shows a small portion of the gifts that were donated by Dauphin County employees and their families piling up around Cindy Rigg’s office .