By Molly Lovell
Staff Writer

Nobody likes to be alone for the holidays.
That’s where a group of volunteers from the Senior Center at Lower Village who call themselves the “Elder Elves” come in.
Since 1991, a handful of volunteers have prepared gift bags for the elderly who have no where to go for Christmas.
“It sounded like a good way to help people,” said Kennebunk resident Norene Dyer, who’s been involved in the program for 10 years.
Kennebunk resident Shawn O’Neil started the program after doing volunteer work with Secret Santa, which collects gifts for children. She said the area was lacking a program that helped out area seniors.
“It really bothered me to think of people sitting by themselves,” she said.
This is Alice Gallant’s first year volunteering with Elder Elves, and she knows what it’s like to be alone on a holiday. I live alone and some days it’s great. Other days I’m climbing the walls. I’ve lived long enough to know the holidays alone can be very  hard,” she said.
Gallant, a Kennebunk resident, has always been active in charity work, and is a member of the senior center and a local garden club. She also used to volunteer to drive people to appointments they otherwise couldn’t get to.
“Now I’m the one that needs to be driven,” she said with a laugh.
Gallant spends Christmas Eve with a nephew who lives nearby, and Christmas Day is spent with relatives in Massachusetts.
She said she remembers what it was like to spend holidays alone, calling it “tough.”
“You have to go beyond yourself. You have to laugh, no matter what, you have to laugh, and you must help others who are less fortunate,” she said.
Dyer said last year the Elder Elves made about 50 bags and will make just a few less this year.
She said the number of bags the volunteers prepare are not based on financial need, but on how many people are spending the holiday alone.
O’Neil said donations are needed, in particular, donations of money.
While every donation is appreciated, she said monetary donations allow volunteers to purchase appropriate gifts.
One year, someone wanted to donate leather agendas, O’Neil said.
“It was a very nice thought, but most of these people are shut-ins or amputees. They’re not going anywhere,” she said.
Common gifts found in the bags are flashlights with batteries, note cards, stamps, lip balm, tissues and larger gifts, such as blankets and gift cards to local grocery stores. Compliments, a store in Kennebunkport, donates calendars to the project every year.
The bags are delivered a week before Christmas to those who have signed up to receive them at their town’s general assistance offices in Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel.
Dyer said every gift in the bag is wrapped, imagining that some people might like to take their time opening the gifts to make the experience last longer.
O’Neil said anyone who would like to donate to the effort can make out a check to ‘Elder Elves,’ and send it to the Senior Center at Lower Village in Kennebunk.
O’Neil said if she could do more for the elderly who are alone each year, she would.
“It breaks your heart that these people are sitting at home, by themselves. Some of them have to chose between paying for medication or heat. It’s nice to know we’re bringing just a little bit of cheer to them on Christmas Day,” she said.

Molly Lovell can be contacted at 282-4337, ext. 223 or news@kennebunkpost.com.