Sweaters for Seniors Program Gets Help from Community

Although maybe a little late in the season, when the cold weather hits it is likely to stay around for a while. This brings to mind the people who might not have the warm clothes needed to deal with the cold as winter really sets in - many of them seniors in the community.

Alternative Home Care for Seniors in Snellville has had an answer for that in the past with its Sweaters for Seniors Program. The winter 2011 version of the program has already kicked off, and this year it got some much needed help from students at in the Loganville/Grayson area.

CCA teacher and department head of the language arts department, Pamela Krumpach, helped put the program together with students raising more than 340 sweaters.

“We had a competition with students buddying up,” Krumpach said. “We have a buddy program where seniors buddy up with students from the lower grades to read to them once a week. We did our buddy system with the high and middle school students. We gave them the opportunity for a casual day week for the team that collected the most sweaters.”

Krumbach said the winning team brought in 164 sweaters. A total of 340 sweaters were collected during the time of the competition. She said it was likely more would come in because students continued to donate sweaters even after the competion was over. The presentation of sweaters to Alternative Home Care for Seniors will be made when students return to school after Thanksgiving break.

“Casual week for the winning team will be the first week back from Christmas break,” she said, adding the project was a good fit for the school since the daughter of the owner of Alternative Home Care was a student at CCA. In addition, CCA students are encouraged to participate in community projects as a requirement of their graduation.

“More and more colleges are looking at the whole student and not just grades and I’m amazed at what some of the students here do,” Krumbach said. “They are required to do 100 hours, but many go way above that – and that's in addition to studies, sports, cheering, student government – they have busy lives as it is.”

To learn more about Alternative Home Care for Seniors, click here to be taken to their Facebook page.