More Christmas cheer is on the way for isolated seniors this Christmas season

It's that time of year again. 

Ellen Brisley and Leya Oommen are bringing more Christmas cheer to isolated seniors in nursing homes this holiday season. 

After the success of their pilot project with Technovation, the app Aiuto Solutions helped provide gifts to seniors at the Chartwell Retirement home and The Village at University Gates. After seeing the positive impact it left last year, the girls hope to make an even more significant impact this year.

“We created the platform so charities can reach out to donors in an easy way. They can communicate their info, and it allows donors to find reliable charities and stay informed during the entire donation process,” said Oommen.

This year, they have partnered up with the two retirement homes to help provide gifts to 150 isolated seniors. They have also partnered with University of Waterloo organization Students helping Seniors, to help make the gifts more personalized. 

Seniors will choose from a list of gifts options, such as chocolates and candies, male toiletry kits, blankets, and games. Brisley adds that students helping Seniors will help make the presents more personalized by making cards for the seniors.

Brisley said to see the looks on the seniors faces when they receive their gifts was very heartwarming, “some even had tears.” 

“We realized for some of these people since they were so isolated, these were the only presents they were getting during th entire holiday season.”

Technovation is a coding competition where girls are encouraged to create an app to solve real-world problems. Aiuto Solutions has moved on to semi-finals for the Technovation Coding Competition this year and the girls received Silver in the Waterloo Wellington Science and Engineering Fair.

Anyone can donate and more information can be found on their web app.