Spreading Joy With Blessings Bags

The holidays are about sharing and spreading joy. As we prepare ourselves for holiday feasts and gift-giving galore, it is important to take a moment to stop and think about those who may be in need of a little extra help during this busy season.

Oakwood Creative Care has been incredibly fortunate enough to receive ongoing support from its communities and we wanted to find a new way to spread holiday cheer through sharing our gratitude with those around us.

In looking to give back to the community and help others in need, Oakwood Creative Care’s Town Center Day Club Director, Annie Naugle, created a drive to help gather items from Oakwood’s Members, families, and others within the area to create Blessings Bags.

Every day, members of Oakwood Creative Care would bring in items they wanted to contribute to the Blessings Bags, including socks, water, Kleenex, soap, granola bars, toiletries, and hand sanitizer.

All items donated were then sorted and distributed into individual bags, labeled, and sent home for families to be able to then decide how they were going to use them to share joy with the people around them.

Some Blessings Bags were donated to charities, while others were given to those whom families knew needed a little extra support during the holidays, and even to those living on the corner.

The idea of the Blessing Bags opened the floor for many powerful conversations about gratitude and the importance of lifting one another up during times of need. Molly Fulton, the daughter and caregiver of one of Oakwood Creative Care’s members, Sally, said she was happy to donate to the Blessings Bags for a number of reasons:

“I always try to support Oakwood in any way I can. They have been so good for my mom and for my mental health. Secondly, my mother was always a person who helped out others when she could. Before the disease became so advanced, she and I would make our own Blessing Bags. We always had them handy in the car. Mom would hand them out when we were stopped at a light. In a removed way, donating made me feel like she and I were together again, working as a team to help the homeless.”

We love the holidays for the merriment and cheer that comes with many familiar and festive traditions, but for some, they can also bring in overwhelming feelings of anxiety, burnout, and stress. This season, while tackling your holiday wish-lists, we encourage you to take a moment to think about those in need and how you might be able to spread joy by lending a helping hand. Together, we have the power to make a real difference for those around us.