While this year has been a challenging one for us all, our team at Hutz has been very privileged to have worked throughout the lockdown period. It is with this in mind that our employees came together to give back to the local community, in the form of Senior Santa Shoeboxes.

Huis Genot, an NPO Old Age Home in Port Elizabeth, was chosen as the recipient of the Senior Santa Shoeboxes and saw our team more than doubling their previous efforts by filling more than 80 boxes to brighten the lives of the residents at the facility.

Each shoebox consisted of some basic items, such as a facecloth and soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant, Vaseline, a packet or two of biscuits, a juice or cooldrink along with a chocolate or mints. Some employees added extra little items or a handwritten note or card to personalise their gift. Employees were given the opportunity to individually, or as a group, sponsor a shoebox or items to put into the shoebox.

Thank you to Hutz Medical Management, who sponsored the actual shoeboxes that were used for the project. Another big thank you must go to Julian Hutz (Executive Director: Europe) who personally sponsored R5 000, which was used to purchase items to make the lives of the seniors living there more comfortable and enjoyable. These included amongst others a CD player, netballs, a couple of standing fans as well as a variety of board game such as Scrabble, Rummikub, Chess, Dominos and Jenga.

All the shoeboxes were suitably sterilised and stood for a number of days to ensure that all the gifts were safe for their recipients.

Although we were not able to take our team to visit with the residents of Huis Genot or personally hand out the presents, we have no doubt that they were met with much enthusiasm and joy from their recipients who had no idea they were each being spoilt with an individual box of goodies!