Wrapping presents now, unwrapping joy later

PALMER — Waves of people cycled through the Mat-Su Senior Services center on Saturday for the annual wrapping party event for the Santa Cop & Heroes Program. Mounds of black trash bags piled up after several hours of sorting, wrapping and tagging. Gifts are now ready to be delivered to seniors on Christmas Day by various volunteers in uniforms around the Mat-Su Valley.

“It’s nice to know when you wrap these that someone is going to have so much joy unwrapping them,” Boom Town Derby Dames league president Tina Clifford, a.k.a. “Valkyries Hammer” said.

Clifford stood at a table wrapping presents with her teammates. She said that they have showed up to wrap since the first wrapping party.

“We love doing this event. There’s always a good group that shows up,” Clifford said. “We are here every year without fail.”

Donna Anthony, a former Palmer Police officer, started this program 13 years ago when she was still on the force. She created it to help the seniors 60 and older who would normally spend their Christmas alone.

It became an official non-profit in 2007. Now, each Christmas, police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and other unformed members of the community volunteer their time to drop the presents off to seniors and keep them company.

“They were happy that we’re just sitting there talking to them. The gifts were an extra bonus,” Anthony said.

According to Anthony, about 100 people cycled through the wrapping party, with many regulars who come back every year.

“I started that because I’m the worst wrapper ever,” Anthony said with a laugh.

Retired Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District teacher Melissa Mudd said that she’s volunteered at this event since it started.

“I absolutely love to wrap presents. I always ask people to give them to me. This is four hours of non-stop fun to me,” Mudd said.

Across the table from Mudd was Palmer Police chief Lance Ketterling. He said that he saw this event evolve over time, gaining more support from the community, starting as more of a Palmer-oriented event with the PPD to a more far reaching event for the whole Valley.

“It just got huge,” Ketterling said.

The program grew all the way to Talkeetna, Butte and Chickaloon, according to Anthony. Ketterling wanted to stress that Anthony, Santa Cop & Heroes Program Vice-chair Anita McPherson, regulars at PPD and other volunteers were the driving forces behind this annual tradition and he was just helping out.

“I’m just here to show up and look pretty and wrap presents. My role is pretty minimum,” Ketterling said.

McPherson said this was her eighth year in the program. She said that the need is always there. She said that seniors are often a “forgotten part of the community” and it’s important to spend time with them.

“When you get to know the seniors and how much it means to them, you can’t just not do it,” McPherson said.

McPherson said aside from the presents and presence provided on Christmas day, these visits also serve as welfare check. Often times, seniors, especially those living alone will need help with various things and often go without that help unless people check on them.

“That’s worth more than presents to a lot of them, the companionship,” McPherson said.

McPherson said that the Wrapping Party always has a big turnout but their biggest need is more regular volunteers to help throughout the year. She said that their resources are tight and they need help bolstering them back up to provide more care all year, not just on Christmas. These year round, welfare services include providing firewood, help paying for prescriptions, plowing driveways and so on.

McPherson said that when they cannot help in certain areas due to constraints, they connect the seniors to other groups who can help. She said that she was confident that locals will see the need and fill it like they have before when manpower and other resources were stretched thin.

“The community always steps up. That’s why this works,” McPherson said. “Once we put the word out, people respond.

Anthony said that in spite of all the negative news floating around, this event encourages her that there’s plenty of good going around.

“It shows that people still care,” Anthony said.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com