Ding Dong! Over 150 older people in the Drogheda area received a lovely surprise this morning when they answered the door to a Christmas elf bearing gifts from Drogheda and District Services for Older People (DDS4OP), an organisations that is right at the very heart of the local community.
All year round DDS4OP provide support for the health, safety, wellbeing and community involvement of older people in Drogheda and the surrounding areas but they like to go that extra mile at Christmas time.
One of the most well-known and popular of their services is the “Good Morning Drogheda” by which they reach out every morning to older people living on their own to say “hello” and to check that they are safe and well.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic this service has really come into its own and many more elderly people, suddenly finding themselves lonely and missing their friends, have signed up to have some daily contact with the outside world.
DDS4OP Manager Dave Turner told Drogheda Life that over 160 people are now receiving calls every day from the “Good Morning Drogheda” service and they tend to want to talk longer as well.
“We have had a very busy year he said and we’re delighted to be in apposition to reduce the feeling of isolation, loneliness and vulnerability and offer a friendly, kind and understanding call” he said.
This morning Dave was playing Santa Claus to a group of volunteer elves who were collecting parcels of Christmas goodies from the DDS4OP depot at Greenhills for distribution to over 150 lucky recipients around the Drogheda area.
“The 150 recipients were chosen at random from the 1,500 people who have used our services this year” Dave said.
The contents were purchased with donations from the community development lead in Louth County Council with responsibility for the Age Friendly County Programme and Julie Plunkett of Coca-Cola.
“It’s nice to give someone a surprise gift in a year that has been full of restrictions and worries associated with the Covid pandemic” Dave said.
For more information about “Good Morning Drogheda” and all the other services offered by DDS4OP see http://dds4op.com/ or FREE PHONE: 1800 200 100
