Sudbury students going 'all out' to bring Christmas cheer to 117 seniors

An idea to bring Christmas cheer to five Sudbury seniors has expanded to a class helping 117 seniors.

Each year, students at Northeastern Elementary School take part in a kindness project.

Stephanie Zakamarko is the life skills teacher whose seven students all have learning disabilities.

"Last year, our class worked really closely with the soup kitchen," she said.

"We raffled off tickets for a homemade calendar that we made and we purchased their car starter for their van."

This year, her class decided to purchase gifts for five seniors "who didn't have any friends or family come visit them" over the holidays.

After speaking with the long term care home, Extendicare Falconbridge, they discovered there were 117 seniors who met that criteria.

"How do you pick five? We decided to go all out," she said.

"We went to social media and asked for donations and each one of those 117 seniors will get a full Christmas gift this year."

The gifts include a variety of items, including candy, slippers, socks, puzzles and word search books.

Zakamarko says the students have really enjoyed the experience.

"They helped us gather gifts, they helped us wrap gifts," she said. "We made 117 cards."

She adds this is the start of a new relationship, as the students will visit the seniors on a monthly basis.

"Whether it be playing cards with them, board games, colouring, just visiting," she said.

"Maybe they could teach us a few things and our kids can teach them a few things."

Other classes have their own kindness projects on the go, including shovelling driveways or volunteering at the soup kitchen.