SYRACUSE — Welcoming any help that comes their way, two local friends are looking to spread holiday cheer this month by distributing packaged gifts to senior citizens.

The event, which is being called “Share the Season’s Holiday Sparkle,” will revolve around the delivery of Mint Bliss Gift Sets to Loretto Sedgwick Heights and Bishop Rehabilitation & Nursing Center, both of which are located on James Street in Syracuse.

The giveaway was the idea of East Syracuse resident Ellen Eber, a Mary Kay independent beauty consultant.

She sees it as a spinoff of “Adopt a Grandparent,” a seasonal initiative started in Rochester by another representative of the same cosmetics marketing company.

Eber said that generous gesture has been “wonderfully successful” in that part of the state, and so it crossed her mind to draw as much as possible from her personal inventory and share similar products with elderly folks in the Syracuse area.

The gift sets contain festive stickers, a three-fluid-ounce tube of mint foot lotion for fragile skin, and a neutral but colorful and “cutesy” holiday card wrapped with a bow.

Eber proceeded to ask her longtime friend, Kenneth Fike, if he would pitch in by donning his big red suit, hopping on his sleigh and personally delivering the packaged gift sets—a request he immediately obliged.

Fike, who went to Liverpool High School with Eber in the early 1980s, is known to make appearances as Santa Claus, and he did so for Lights on the Lake from 1996 to 2015, presenting gifts for the millionth, two millionth, three millionth and four millionth cars that visited the two-mile-long drive-thru show.

Catering to event planners, Fike’s personal volunteer effort has a Facebook page called “Santa’s Magical Moments,” and he said this year has been his busiest yet. He stops by group homes, nature centers, town tree lightings, and shopping centers and said he’s always glad to touch people’s hearts and have an uplifting effect.

Fike will be dropping off gifts to the Bishop and Sedgwick retirement facilities as Santa Claus between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 21.

His plan is to get into character and head on over with a portable speaker playing holiday music. Upon his arrival, he will sit in either the general meeting area or foyer at each location to hand out the gifts and do a meet-and-greet with the residents.

Fike said he wants to be careful and considerate of compromised immune systems, so in certain cases, he will relay gifts to staff members at the facilities to bring to those in other parts of the buildings.

Fike and Eber said some residents of nursing care centers might not have family members around and could feel lonely or forgotten about, especially this time of year if they have nobody in the immediate vicinity to visit them.

“If we can change things a little bit on our end of the world to make things a little brighter for people and keep the Christmas spirit alive, that’s all we’re trying to do,” Fike said. “The elderly have done a lot for us by raising this younger generation. They blazed the trail and I just feel it’s important to pay back.”

Eber said it’s something extra special to see Fike’s presence and presentation while dressed as Santa.
“Ken has a wonderful magic all his own,” she said. “He’s very personable and he has a special flair—he’s the perfect Santa and he’ll make this terrific.”

Eber said she has a few dozen gift sets of her own for the show of appreciation but that she’s looking to close the gap between the total amount being delivered and the combined number of residents at the two assisted living sites, which is about 500 residents altogether, she said.

A gift set can be ordered with a $15 donation from the public. The sender can remain anonymous or put their name in the holiday card included so the recipient knows who’s thinking of them.

Donations can be made by texting Eber at 315-256-7726 and arranging to either send a check or a payment through PayPal or Venmo. The set deadline to do so is today, Dec. 15.

Eber said any remaining money will be used to buy more gift sets for next year. She said if all goes well, deliveries in 2024 can be made to children’s hospitals and elsewhere, even around other holidays like Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day.