Mary Kay consultant brings holiday cheer to low-income nursing home seniors

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA (Nov. 22, 2024) — While many spend the holidays gathered with friends and family, former Concord resident Diane Covington devotes her time to a different kind of celebration. Covington recently moved to Benicia.

She brings joy to more than 540 seniors in low-income nursing homes by packing and delivering gift goodie bags. This helps make the season a bit brighter for those who need it most.

Covington hosts the annual Adopt a Grandparent program, inviting community members to “adopt” senior nursing home residents. Participants donate $30 and sing carols for seniors during the holiday season. Each donation sponsors a senior and funds a gift package containing lip balm, hand cream, socks and a teddy bear.

“The program has been a great way to just remember people who maybe aren’t remembered,” Covington said. “It just brings joy to watch their faces light up when you hand them a gift and they’re grateful. I think that’s what this world needs. I find that often the seniors get forgotten, and it’s something that just brings us joy to do it.”

Looking for the lonely

Every dollar donated goes to making new and quality gift packages.

“We don’t make any money on this – we intentionally take every dollar that’s brought in and we roll it into more gifts,” said Covington, a Mary Kay sales director by day.

“So if I make two or three bucks on each gift, I take that two or three bucks and just roll it more into the next gift. It’s not about profits, it’s about making a difference.”

The program is aimed toward seniors living in low-income care facilities. As of now, the program serves seniors in five facilities in Martinez, Pleasant Hill, Concord and Antioch.

“I reached out to a woman who was a social worker, and I said, ‘Of all the places in Contra Costa County, can you tell me which places are the most needy?’ ” Covington said. “I’d rather have them go to the people that are probably not going to get anything else for the holidays.”

She chose these particular nursing facilities because many residents there rarely receive visitors, gifts or holiday cheer.

“There was a gentleman at the Alhambra (nursing home) in Martinez who has seven or eight bears right by the side of his bed, and he’s always excited when we come,” Covington said. “He’ll be like, ‘You’re back. Did you bring me another bear?’ Because they’re just so hungry for love, affection, attention.”

Each gift package includes small but meaningful items that can help seniors feel loved.

“The lotions are meant to have the caregivers give the gift of touch. People in the convalescent home get a gift of touch, from somebody rubbing the hand cream on their hands, somebody rubbing the foot cream on their foot,” noted Francene Anderson, Covington’s colleague and an Adopt a Grandparent volunteer. “That’s a tremendous gift.”

Help from her Mary Kay family

Covington started her project due to a colleague whose relative lived in a low-income nursing home, Rosewood Care Center in Pleasant Hill.

“We would bring a gift to all the residents, and we would go caroling up and down the halls and all that,” Covington said.

“Well, within a year or two, some of the other Mary Kay people across the country came up with an idea to do something like sponsoring a grandparent, or adopt a grandparent.”

Covington has working with Mary Kay consultants and employees from all over the country to launch her program. She said the spirit of the company and its employees helps her grow this initiative.

“I’m not an employee of Mary Kay, I’m just an independent contractor, but we’ve got our local group, and we’ve had other Mary Kay local people all help me,” Covington said. “So it’s not just me doing it by myself, but there’s about a dozen consultants that will go into the community and ask their friends and family if they would like to purchase a gift for a senior.”

Adopt a Grandparent has also garnered support from local organizations such as the Kiwanis Club of Concord, which donates 100 teddy bears.

The 2024 Adopt a Grandparent program will occur the week before Christmas.

“Everybody’s super busy, but we do it all in one day. It’s a very long day. We start singing and handing out gifts at 9:30 in the morning, and you never want to say no to somebody when they ask if they can talk with us,” Covington said. “We’re there sometimes until 6 o’clock or 5 o’clock at night. But it’s a very, very rewarding day.”

A boost for breast cancer patients

Covington has expanded her project to making gift packages year-round for breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

“About a year or two ago, we started doing chemo care packages because I lost my sister to breast cancer 14 years ago, and we put together over $9,000 worth of chemo care packages and delivered them to John Muir at their new Oncology Center in Walnut Creek,” Covington said.

“For about two months, every time somebody came in for a chemo treatment, they would give them one of these bags that has three different products and a personalized note of encouragement.”

While the breast cancer patient project is relatively new, it’s making an impact within the community.

“Diane is wonderful in terms of taking a project and making it bigger and better,” Anderson said. “We started at the very beginning together. She really took hold and made it what it is now – just a very large project.”

Covington has given about 300 gift packages to breast cancer patients and plans to expand to more oncology centers to brighten patients’ days.

“If you can make enough people smile and love, you always can get what you want when you put others first,” Covington said.

Keerthi Eraniyan is a student intern with the Pioneer.

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