Retirees bring sunshine to struggling families





SUNSHINE COMMITTEE— Residents of Holiday Retirement at Simi Hills get ready to drop off more than 70 gifts at the Coalition for Family Harmony in Oxnard on Dec. 21. A group of seniors from the retirement home adopted three struggling families.

SUNSHINE COMMITTEE— Residents of Holiday Retirement at Simi Hills get ready to drop off more than 70 gifts at the Coalition for Family Harmony in Oxnard on Dec. 21. A group of seniors from the retirement home adopted three struggling families.

Seven seniors at a Simi Valley retirement home brought Christmas cheer in the form of presents and money last week to three struggling families who have recently emerged from a battered women’s shelter.

Known as the Sunshine Committee, the group of seniors from Holiday Retirement at Simi Hills dropped off the gifts Dec. 21 at the Oxnard-based Coalition for Family Harmony, a nonprofit that aids victims of family violence.

“They all had little elf hats on,” said Cynthia “Cyndi” Lee O’Neil, enrichment coordinator for the nearly 100 residents at the Wood Ranch retirement home. “We went out there to meet face-to-face with (the coalition’s housing services manager) and donate the gifts.”

The day after the gifts were dropped off, the nonprofit gave the families their presents.

“They were very surprised,” Noel Stalcup, housing services manager for the coalition, said of the families. “The Sunshine Committee was able to give them so many presents. They had no idea that they were going to get so many gifts. (One little boy) was jumping up and down.”

The Sunshine Committee — Diana Lewis, Norma Greppin, Joan Davison, Lavina O’Hirok, Jeannette McAleer, Mary Callaway and Patricia Drury — brightened Christmas for three single mothers and their children. There were six kids in all.

“After (having stayed at) the shelter, they all have left and are trying to make it on their own,” O’Neil said. “Even though they’re doing very well, they’re still trying to find their legs.”

Stalcup, who works out of the coalition’s Oxnard shelter (the nonprofit also has a Simi Valley office), said the family members all needed warm clothing and boots. A teenage girl received winter clothes and a keyboard piano. Four younger girls received Barbie dolls, Minnie Mouse clothes and roller skates, while the one boy scored the set of Pokemon cards he had wanted.

In addition to these presents, Holiday Retirement seniors and staffers reached into their own wallets and purses and collected nearly $600 for the three families.

“The residents did it out of their own hearts,” O’Neil said.

Doing something special

Drury, who leads the Sunshine Committee, has lived at Holiday Retirement at Simi Valley for nearly two years with her dogs — a bichon and a Maltese poodle — by her side.

“I absolutely love it here,” she said. “I’m so busy. There are games that we play. They have bingo, bowling and entertainment.”

Drury, who spent Christmas at her daughter’s Simi home this year, knows that others may not be as fortunate as she is. So she and her fellow residents set out to help those in need.

At 78, Drury is the youngest member of the Sunshine Committee, whose participants are mostly in their 80s, while Callaway just turned 90.

“They have done stuff in the community,” O’Neil said of the committee. “They visit people who are sick. They decided when it was Christmastime that they wanted to do an outreach to the community.”

After O’Neil drew up a list of potential beneficiaries of the gifts, the committee elected to adopt the three shelter families.

“We as a community wanted to make their holiday special,” Drury said.

Once the Dec. 6 decision to help the families was made, the Sunshine Committee mobilized quickly, creating a set of ornaments that night.

“We cut out stars, bulbs and snowballs,” Drury said.

Written on each ornament was a gift from a family member’s wish list that a Holiday Retirement resident could elect to fulfill.

The next day, O’Neil brought a Christmas tree to the retirement home and the Sunshine Committee hung the ornaments. In all, Holiday Retirement residents and staffers pitched in to purchase more than 70 presents.

“There’s a misconception that seniors have nothing to offer. That’s just not true,” O’Neil said. “They’re going to do more throughout the year.”

After the families received their presents, word of the recipients’ glee flew back to the Sunshine Committee, who likewise drew Christmas cheer from the news.

“They were so thankful, so grateful for the gifts,” Drury said. “When we got on the bus to go home (after dropping off the gifts), Cyndi asked us, ‘Do you all feel like a million dollars?’ We all said, ‘Yeah!’”


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