Nursing home residents were greeted with special blessing baskets for the holiday season on Dec. 14.
Central Missouri Community Action (CMCA) and NurseServ, LLC worked together with several county organizations to spread cheer this December. According to CMCA coordinator Jenn Millard, last year Jennifer Riggs, a registered nurse from NurseServ, approached her to see if their organizations could work together for a Christmas program benefiting older individuals in the county.
"(Riggs) just came to me and wanted to work on a project towards giving to those in a nursing home, or maybe who don't have visitors coming to see them, and just wanted to kind of give them something," Millard said.
Millard said baskets filled with items such as blankets, pillows, water bottles, crossword puzzles, snacks, body care products, chap stick, slippers, socks and much more.
The two quickly got to work last year, getting in contact with different partners and churches to make sure they would be able to acquire all the items needed for the program.
She said this year's Blessings in Moniteau program continued to be a success for both organizations. Although the number of nursing homes that were visited shrank by one, the number of blessing baskets to give to resident increased by 18.
Millard reported 53 blessing baskets were distributed among nursing homes. She said this year CMCA and NurseServ received assistance from Tipton First Baptist Church, Tipton High School's National Honor Society, California High School, the United Church of Christ in California, Fortuna Baptist Church, Co-Mo Connect, Hollon Family Chiropractic, Salem United Church of Christ in McGirk and Green Grove Baptist Church.
She said California High School gave a donation for items to be placed in the Blessings in Moniteau while Tipton students volunteered to deliver baskets to residents.
"I had a group of kids that came and helped package them one day and then the next day, I had another group that helped deliver them," Millard said. " saw them enjoying given them to the residents. Actually, some of those that were handing them out, actually worked out some of the nursing homes, and so they kind of had that experience. So it was just nice that they were able to see how the community gave back to some of the residents they work with as well."
Although Millard hasn't heard back from the residents yet, she said she will soon. She is eager to see the Blessings in Moniteau program continue to grow between the CMCA and NurseServ, LLC.
"Everybody just came together on this project. And just to see all the efforts that they give towards this (is wonderful). I even had donations dropped off at the front of my door as anonymous donations," Millard said. "'Its just amazing to see how much everyone cares about this project and helped make it grow even bigger this year."