COLUMBIA, S.C. — All thanks to a whole bunch of community love, seniors at NHC Healthcare Parklane in Columbia are about to have a wonderful Christmas.
"The gifts have been pouring in," said Patti Silva, the business office manager for the nursing center.
Ever since Silva posted to the Nextdoor community app for help with donations, the garland-length string of comments to help has been overflowing.
"My mom and my grandmom, my mother-in-law, his mom, we have no parents. Our fathers, our mothers, grandparents and I don't know, it just gets to me every Christmas and I thought about this year, I'm going to, out of my heart do something for the senior citizens," Carolyn Brooks, Christmas gift-giver said.
Carolyn and her husband dropped off some gifts Thursday, saying they'll be back with more before the December 20, 2021 deadline.
"The UPS guy just comes to my office now and drops them off, like here!" Silva said.
Patti said they've been getting 30 to 40 gifts per week.
She put together a spreadsheet for the 150 residents, then an Amazon wishlist of the items they wanted, some of which includes books, blankets, and candy.
"Some gifts are small, a blanket or a pair of pajamas or coloring books or different things, but it makes their day," Tyler Birmingham, NHC Parklane administrator said.
They want to bring smiles to their faces this holiday season.
"There's just a lot of residents who don't have family members, so it's us as employees, when we've been working it so long, working in healthcare so long, we just make sure that all of our residents are happy," Silva said.