Loving is Caring

UAC Heroes’ “Loving is Caring” campaign for the elderly continues in 2021. On February 12, 2021, UAC distributed 50 love bags in communities in Westchester County, New York; on February 15, UAC delivered 150 love bags to Golden Eagle Adult Day Care Center in Flushing, New York; and on February 17, UAC delivered 200 love bags to the Longevity Garden nursing home (The Allure Group) in Brooklyn, New York.

In Westchester County, UAC volunteers paid special visits to seniors living alone in the community. These seniors don’t need round-the-clock nursing care, but with their children far away, the pandemic inevitably makes them lonely. Along with the love bags, the volunteers delivered letters written in English by children in Shanghai and Kunming, hoping the seniors would feel the warmth sent from China. The seniors’ joyful smiles were the most beautiful response we could have received.

Golden Eagle Adult Day Care Center has more than 200 members, most of them low-income people covered by Medicaid. Although the center closed during the pandemic, its staff kept providing remote video services and meal delivery to seniors and people with disabilities – delivering meals even in blizzards. The 150 love bags were handed out to the seniors by the center during its meal deliveries, which made it possible for UAC to pass on this love. Since it was the Lunar New Year, the love cards for the Chinese-American seniors carried greetings written in Chinese, contributed by young volunteers in New York and children in Shanghai and Kunming. Touched by the gesture, many of the seniors took photos at home, and some even made thank-you videos.

Longevity Garden is the facility within The Allure Group that serves Chinese-American seniors. Our delivery coincided with the Lunar New Year celebration the nursing home was holding for its residents, and the caregivers helped UAC hand out love bags to the seniors most in need of emotional support. Besides posing with their love bags, the seniors warmly sent back their thanks.

This round of love bags once again carried the volunteers’ love. Each bag contained KN95 masks, hand sanitizer, soap and sandwich cookies, along with a New Year card and a love card (plus a letter). The New Year card carried a QR code linking to an online video of the children’s performances for the seniors, which they could scan and watch. The front of the love card showed children’s drawings of care for the seniors, and the back carried heartfelt handwritten greetings from the volunteers. These greetings and the English letters mostly came from children recruited by our volunteer teachers.

The contributions gathered by our volunteer teachers came mainly from children aged 10 to 16 in Shanghai and Kunming. Besides the moving Chinese greetings on the love cards above, the children – guided by their teachers – wrote letters in English for the first time, and their simple words overflow with sincere feeling.

We are deeply grateful to all the volunteers for supporting UAC’s activities, to the staff of Golden Eagle Adult Day Care Center and Longevity Garden for their active coordination and feedback, to our volunteer teachers for organizing and guiding the children, and to our young volunteers for the sincere care they showed the seniors.