‘Baskets of Love’ brighten Valentine’s Day for Brunswick County nursing home residents

BRUNSWICK COUNTY (WWAY) — In honor of Valentine’s Day, one Brunswick County organization is making this year’s heart-centered holiday extra special for some nursing home residents.

Around 100 gift baskets rolled through the halls of Autumn Care of Shallotte Friday morning, delivered to seniors by volunteers with The Heart of Brunswick organization as part of their “Baskets of Love” event.

Co-founder Christina Casad says the group wanted to keep finding ways to give back after a similar effort during the holidays.

“It’s kind of playing off of what we did for Thanksgiving. So, we had a family member that was in Hospice care this time last year, and so for Thanksgiving, we decided to give back and do meals for Hospice care, and then we were like, ” How do we continue that?” So we decided to do nursing homes,” said Casad.

The day before, volunteers gathered to fill each basket by hand with donations from the community, placing lotion, ChapStick, tea, socks, and puzzles inside one item at a time.

Casad says events like this show how generous Brunswick County can be.

“So, Heart of Brunswick, the heart in Brunswick is big. Everybody wants to help and give back, and that’s apparent with this,” said Casad.

That includes volunteers like Calabash resident Natalie Moore.

“That’s where my heart is. I feel like if we as people are blessed, we need to pay it forward,” said Moore.

She says it was all about making the residents feel loved.

“A lot of these residents are left behind or, you know, don’t have a lot of day-to-day contact because their loved ones aren’t always local, don’t always get to come in and see them, so it was great to see the smile on their faces and give back to the community,” said Moore.

As the baskets were delivered, the reactions said it all.

Casad says the group plans to continue hosting give-back events, keeping the heart of Brunswick strong all year long.