SPONSORED BY FINNERON HYUNDAI
A couple years ago, Breanna Brosko decided to brighten the holiday season for seniors in nursing homes. So, at age 14, she started a project called Adopt-a-Grandparent for Christmas. At the A&W on Cliffe Avenue in Courtenay, she put up a Christmas wish tree adorned with tags bearing the name of a senior. The idea was to have the public choose a tag and bring back a wrapped gift.
The result? Around 75 seniors at Casa Loma and Glacier View Lodge received gifts in 2016, the program’s inaugural year.
Last year, the number of recipients jumped to 233.
“Having the program triple was absolutely amazing,” said Breanna, 15, a Grade 10 student at Vanier Secondary. “It’s beautiful to see how much the community wants to get involved and help. It was incredible to see the Comox Valley’s reaction and willingness for more grandparents to adopt. It was more than necessary for the program to triple. The Valley wanted it.”
Breanna was inspired to start the program by her great-grandfather, who lives in Kamloops. She wanted to give him a Christmas present, but family trips to his hometown are infrequent due to financial challenges.
Sadly, her mother passed away last Christmas.
“Which made this program that much more important to me,” Breanna said. “No matter what, it will continue on. And now, under her name. The Adopt-a-Grandparent program now falls under the April Brosko Foundation, which is a non-profit organization I’m working on creating. She loved the community, and it’s only right that her love gets put to good use.”
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