An avalanche of kindness leads to over 400 donations to senior communities

By Mike Renzella

The Haldimand Press

CALEDONIA—Anyone who would try and tell you the spirit of the season is missing in 2020 hasn’t met Caledonia resident Sarah Hague. The Hague family has been making donations yearly to help spread Christmas cheer, but this year she wanted to do something a little different.

“Usually we do something for kids, like a toy drive, but with COVID this year I felt like seniors had been more impacted than anybody else,” said Hague. “I really wanted to do something for them.”

Sarah went looking for a local organization dedicated to gifting to seniors for the holiday season, but was surprised to learn such a program did not currently exist in Haldimand. She then reached out to RVilla Caledonia Retirement Living and learned that there were 40 residents in the home who would likely not be receiving anything this year: “I knew this year was already hard enough. They weren’t going to get to spend it with their families and they’ve been stuck inside for nine months, so when I found out that they were in need, I was excited to change that.”