Senior shopping day hosted at Wal-Mart

Lake Havasu City senior citizens shopped with holiday helpers Monday during an event specifically for senior citizens requiring a helping hand. This is the first year the senior shopping day program was offered to local seniors.

Western Arizona Council of Governments through the Area Agency on Aging Volunteer Service Program organized the inaugural Wal-Mart Senior Christmas Shopping Day. The event is for seniors living in local nursing home care centers and assisted living centers.

“This is the first year we have done it (Senior Christmas Shopping Day) in Havasu,” said Marla Arney, volunteer coordinator for WACOG. Arney hopes to organize the shopping event benefiting seniors again next year and hopes to include local high school students in the volunteering. She has employed similar teen-to-senior pairing in Kingman and Bullhead programs.

WACOG volunteers helped the local seniors make their holiday selections at Wal-Mart for the WACOG organizations first holiday shopping event in Lake Havasu City.

“The principal reason for this event is to give our guests (the seniors) an opportunity to receive some help with their holiday shopping, some companionship, and lots of holiday cheer,” said Arney.

There were 33 seniors who attended the Senior Christmas Shopping Day at Super Wal-Mart Monday. On hand to assist the elderly holiday shoppers were approximated 30 WACOG volunteers, Arney said.

Upon completing the task of holiday shopping, the shoppers, staff, and volunteers were all treated to snacks and refreshments in Wal-Mart’s employee break room. The snacks and refreshments were courtesy of Wal-Mart.

They also extended a special 10 percent off participating seniors’ purchases that day.

Five local nursing home and assisted living centers participated in the Christmas Shopping Event this year. The two Prestige Assisted Living centers, on Smoketree Avenue and Claremont Drive, brought senior citizens to gather gifts. Two Serenity Assisted Living centers and Havasu Nursing Center seniors also joined in to shop.

Each of the participating nursing homes and assisted living centers were presented with a DVD player through WACOG and Wal-Mart’s combined efforts in the spirit of the holidays.

You may contact the reporter at jhanson@havasunews.com.