KAMSACK — In the tradition of fantastic Christmas tales that include ghosts of Christmases past, present and future, seeing what life would have been like without you and “love is all around,” there’s a Miracle on Miles Street in Kamsack to help make the holiday more special.
Eaglestone Lodge is located at 346-Miles St. where staff, Friends of Eaglestone (formerly the Eaglestone auxiliary), board members and volunteers, including friends and family of residents, are working to foster a “miracle” for the festive season.
It all comes to a head on Dec. 22 when a highlight of the day is a program similar to the well-known “Secret Santa” scheme in which all 39 residents will receive gifts from Santa Claus because of the involvement of members of the community, Tricia Sheptak, manager of the facility, said, adding that the highly successful program began in 2020 and is continuing this year.
In the program, members of the community are invited to either provide a gift or donate funds so that gifts may be purchased for residents, explained Karen Bodnaryk, a board member. Gifts are to cost around $25 each.
In the past, everyone received one of the presents from Santa and extra money was put towards the Lodge’s planned New Year’s Eve party, Bodnaryk said.
Persons interested in participating are asked to phone the Lodge to be told what sort of gifts have been requested, much like a wedding registry, by residents.
Participants in the program may select which gift to provide to which resident, she said. For example, Grace might have asked for a red-and-white scarf, while Joe might have asked for slippers, and another might want another piece of clothing.
All the gifts are wrapped and placed under the Christmas tree, along with all other gifts that have been left for residents, and Santa Claus, who has promised to visit the Lodge on Dec. 22, will distribute them all.
But the day will begin much earlier with a pancake-and-sausages breakfast which will be served from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. by members of the staff of about 25, assisted by volunteers.
Breakfast is one of three meals that will be served that day and visitors are welcome to purchase admission to one, two or all three meals to enjoy with the residents, Sheptak explained. Lunch will feature a hearty soup and the supper will be a full, traditional Christmas dinner with turkey, ham and all the trimmings.
After breakfast, the residents, who will have been practising routines on the chimes for about six weeks under the direction of Annette Purchase, the activity director, will provide a mini concert of Christmas tunes.
Lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. residents and visitors will be treated to a magic performance by Easton Moline of Kamsack.
“I’ve been doing magic for a long time, although not too much lately,” Moline said, estimating his show will be from 45 minutes to an hour.
“When we lived in Edmonton, I used to do it a lot,” he said, adding that within the past year, he has performed a magic act at the nursing home, the Lodge and Davies Tower. He does his show free of charge.
“I don’t do card tricks, what I do can be called mentalism,” he said, explaining that one of his tricks involves five glasses with trinkets in them but one of them also has a $100 bill inserted. The audience is challenged to guess which glass has the valuable bill. If they guess correctly, they can have the money.
“But no one can guess correctly.”
Moline said that for the show, he will be on stage with Donna Deederly, his assistant.
“I do it because I enjoy it,” he said. “It’s something different for seniors.”
After the magician’s applause dies down, coffee will be served at 2 p.m., and then a “resident and family participation story” will be staged.
It’s a story called A Joyful Noise which includes singing and audience participation, Purchase explained.
Purchase and four residents portraying different characters will lead the session that mimics a rehearsal of a community choir. Periodically one of the characters will break into song, encouraged by the audience.
“It will be fun,” she said, estimating that the show will be from 15 to 20 minutes in length.
At 2:30 p.m., members of the Kamsack Community Choir will sing a few of the carols that the whole group will have performed at its Christmas Concert and Sing-a-long at the United Church on Dec. 8.
And then at 3 p.m., Santa Claus will arrive to distribute all the gifts under the tree.
The Christmas dinner, which will be sponsored by the Holy Trinity Anglican Church Women, will be served starting at 4:30 p.m.
Donations not spent on the Miracle on Miles Street program will be spent to make residents’ New Year’s Eve dinner memorable, Bodnaryk said. One year, enough funds were donated to allow the Lodge to purchase a Chinese food dinner for everyone on New Year’s Eve.
“It was awesome,” she said, welcoming everyone to participate in the Miracle on Miles Street program and to visit Eaglestone Lodge residents on Dec. 22.
