Along with about 20 of her fellow residents, Mavis Wooten, 91, snacked and chatted with visitors Dec. 17, 2013, at Woodland Haus in Cullman, an assisted living center. When one of the helpers came by her table with reindeer antler headbands, she smilingly donned a set and sang along to “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.”
The retired English teacher said the volunteers from churches in West Cullman Baptist Association who come each year to give a Christmas party are always friendly and caring.
The party, which included gifts for every resident, was not a one-time activity for the associational Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU). And 2013 was not even the 10th or 20th Christmas in a row they have done it. The commitment has gone on more than three decades. And the recipients of the gifts and visits are not just in one facility.
Churches band together to provide gifts for every nursing home and assisted living resident in Cullman County — about 660 of them in eight facilities in 2013. Volunteers bring filled gift bags, conduct devotionals, sing, pray, provide refreshments and visit with residents.
They have been doing it since 1981, according to Iva Nell Rodgers, associational WMU director, and Vicki Nix of the association office. In 2013, 48 to 50 of the 60 churches in the association collected items or sent money to buy them, Rodgers said.
Hilda Wise, nursing home parties’ leader for the WMU team, said it is a big job but she has a good committee. They make sure every resident is remembered. One facility alone has 205 residents.
Items and gift bags come in from churches to the associational office each year until they overflow two rooms. Volunteers make sure bags have necessities, like shampoo and body wash, along with Scriptures and extras like cookies and calendars. The workers conduct two parties each Tuesday and Thursday during a two-week span in December.
The project prompted an overflow response in 2013, Rodgers said. She thinks the success is a holdover from 2012, when volunteers crocheted enough curly scarves to give each woman resident.
“Everyone got excited” in 2012, and it made the ladies who participated want to come back in 2013, Rodgers said.
Jack Collins, associational missionary for West Cullman Association, said it is really meaningful that WMU does this, and the staffs at the facilities count on it. “They’re jewels,” he said of the dedicated volunteers.
Pat Williamson, WMU director for Panama Baptist Church, West Point, said her congregation has specifically hosted Woodland Haus’s party for six years and provided gifts for all the residents. Her relative Hazel Williamson was a resident there but died recently.
“We love all of the ladies and men and just keep on doing it,” she said.
Williamson said WMU sponsors the project, but the church, which has about 22 active members, includes the project in its budget and everyone helps.
Volunteer Gwen Welch of New Prospect Baptist Church said she had already helped at two of the earlier parties and made time Dec. 17 to go again.
“Nursing homes need more volunteers to help, and to me it’s really rewarding,” she said.
Wooten said she does not often get to attend First Baptist Church, Cullman, where she has been a member since 1956 and formerly taught women for 27 years.
“This party means the people care for us and haven’t forgotten us,” she said.
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