Smiles and a few tears filled the common area and residents’ rooms at Cedar Hill Care Center Sunday afternoon for the third annual adopt a senior event.

An event that began a few years after a local woman lost her grandmother has grown into an event supported by individuals and businesses alike.

“There were so many smiles and the residents were so happy,” organizer Jamie Crozier said of the gift exchange Sunday.

As the event continues to grow, Crozier said it amazes her how many people in the community donate out of the kindness of their hearts.

“It just makes your heart happy and makes you realize every time you turn on the news and see something horrible and a crappy world we live in and we have this, it just restores your faith in humanity,” Crozier said. “There’s so much good out there, and this has proved it for the third year in a row.”

While the event started as a way to honor her grandmother, Crozier said it has grown beyond her imagination.

“I’m speechless, and I’m rarely speechless,” Crozier said. “But just seeing that, it warms my heart because I know that for me personally, I know my grandma is looking down and she’s so proud of me and I would like to think she had a hand in this.”

In addition to many individual community members, Spectrum Call Center, Dutro Ford Lincoln Nissan, the Zanesville Fire Department, Studio Blu, the Color Pallet Salon and Spa, Characters Express and Genesis therapy center all donated items, adopted seniors, brought fire trucks, supplied vans to transport gifts, donated their time and took up donations at their locations in support of community seniors.

Due to all of the participants and donations, 56 seniors at Cedar Hill were adopted. Shrivers Hospice adopted seniors at Abbott Senior Living, 15 seniors were adopted at Appletree Home of Dresden and totes full of gift items were donated to some of the senior care centers.

“It means the world to a lot (of them),” Kent Harris, an administrator at Cedar Hill, said. “I mean, a lot of folks are here because they don’t have anybody else at home to take care of them so, and this time of year is particularly hard for those people, so it’s a wonderful thing for the community to outreach and adopt these people over the holidays.”

On Sunday, many people attended Cedar Hill to pass out gifts and spend time with the residents. Harris said for some residents that don’t have much family, people visiting them was just as much a present as the actual gifts themselves.

“It’s Christmas all over again, it’s like they’re 6-7 years-old all over again,” Jerry Brown with Dutro said.

One particular story that stuck out for Crozier came from a Dutro employee on Sunday. The woman was visiting a man’s room to give him a gift and the two cried together as the man, John, thanked the woman for the present and for not forgetting about older people during the holidays.

The woman said she is going to return to Cedar Hill to visit John and his wife in the future.

Crozier poured out thanks for everyone in the community for their kindness and participation in an initiative to help seniors feel special during the holidays.

She said she will be back again to host the program next year.

“I can’t imagine not doing this knowing how happy they were,” Crozier said.

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