TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Local students are giving seniors a reason to smile, as many continue to be home-bound through the pandemic.
Through a partnership with State Farm, students at the Leon County Pace Center are packing yellow bags with gifts and essential items to give as COVID care packages to local seniors.
Student Christina Underhill said she putting these packages together means a lot to her because she knows she's "putting a smile on someone's face".
She has been a student at PACE for almost a year and a half.
The PACE Center provides girls in our community with a better future through education, counseling, training and advocacy.
She said this place changed her life.
"I was acting out a lot," Underhill said. "They helped me find the problem, like the origin of everything. They helped me learn stuff about myself that I didn't know about and helped me overcome my different traumas."
Underhill said she is now able to use what she's learning at the center to give back to her community.
The program manager at Leon County PACE center, Dr. Willie Williams said the COVID care packages include everything from hygiene products to letters from the students.
"The giving back part of it is something we really wanted them to learn," Dr. Williams said. "Like how to give back to the community. How to build the community you're living in."
The girls are getting to see their impact first hand as they hand the boxes off the eldercare.
"We're hoping that these packages are a friendly reminder that there are others out there thinking of these seniors," CEO of Elder Care Jocelyne Fliger said.
More than 100 local seniors will get a gift.
Underhill said she's happy to be part of this project because she knows how much seniors have been struggling through the pandemic.
"Some of them are lonely," Underhill said. "They don't have many family members or friends, so I know it could be kind of hard just sitting in your room all the time. Kind of Depressed a little bit, because I've been there. I know how it feels when somebody is uplifting your day."
Elder Care will be delivering the bags to seniors Monday with meals on wheels.
