Presents for Patients looks for gifts, volunteers to visit 26 nursing homes

Dec. 04--For Virginia Latsko, the holidays are a time when the community -- such as student groups and church youth organizations -- reaches out with gifts and visits elderly patients at The Grove of Irwin, the North Huntingdon nursing home where she is activity director.

While the residents appreciate the gifts given through the Presents for Patients program, they really love the contact with family, friends and other visitors, Latsko said.

"Pretty much everyone loves the gifts. What they are really looking for is the contact. They want the human interaction and they enjoy the kids," Latsko said.

Visits by Norwin High School students and the St. Agnes Church youth group are particularly uplifting, Latsko said.

The Grove, which joined the program about a decade ago, is one of 26 nursing homes in Westmoreland County that participate in Presents for Patients, a program sponsored by St. Barnabas Health System of Gibsonia. The initiative is designed to provide thousands of patients in those facilities with holiday cheer and help them cope with the loneliness that they may feel during the holidays.

The program, which started in 1984, has grown to about 225 nursing homes and assisted care facilities in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, said Michele Spencer, a spokeswoman for Barnabas Health System.

The program has been well-received, Spencer said. Typical gifts are blankets, socks, sweaters, sweatshirts, puzzles, books, toiletries and gift cards, she said.

Some of those participating in the program visit the patients and deliver their gifts in person, Spencer said. Others host a "giving party" or may volunteer to deliver donated gifts to a nursing home.

"The secondary goal was to provide members of the public with an opportunity to visit their local nursing homes to witness the acts of goodwill and compassion that occur every day," Spencer said.

Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.

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