Kamloops resident Maryann Purcell poses with Santa at Desert Hills Ranch in December where she received donations for seniors food baskets.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Jen Mohring

A Ukrainian senior in Kamloops, known for her delicious homemade pierogis, is being recognized for her charitable work and pulling the community together to help low-income seniors living alone.

Maryann Purcell has been loading up gift baskets for seniors in need at Christmastime for several years, and every year the project gets bigger with more helping hands reaching out to take part.

“To me this is exciting, I get a lot of joy out of it,” Purcell said. “I’m so stunned with how people come together at Christmas with what’s going on out there with inflation, people want to do something, especially when it comes to a senior.”

The baskets are filled with gift cards, expensive food staples, meat, potatoes and toiletries all thanks to hundreds of dollars in donations from community members and local businesses, and part of the proceeds Purcell earns selling her delicious pierogis.

Baskets are hand delivered to the doors of some of the most vulnerable seniors in the community, a cohort Purcell said is struggling to make ends meet.

“I know seniors living on the financial brink while dealing with medical issues at the same time, it’s so sad,” she said. “People message me and tell me why a senior should get a basket, some of the seniors have terminal illnesses.”

Part of the initiative is about interacting with seniors that are living alone. On one occasion a recipient’s home was so unclean, Purcell cleaned her house under the false premise housekeeping was part of the gift.

“This is why I don’t usually do deliveries, my heart can’t handle seeing these kinds of things,” she said.

Purcell’s friend and hairdresser Jen Mohring reached out to iNFOnews.ca with her story. She met Purcell a few years ago after trying her pierogis. She later donated free haircuts to seniors to help with the project.

“She is such an amazing human, I’ve never come across anybody with a bigger heart,” Mohring said. “She isn’t super wealthy, she just does these things because she is a good person.”

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A few days ago, Purcell found out Mohring was a bit short on business lately so she showed up at the door with a homemade supper for her, to "put a smile on her face."

“I haven’t told her anything about this interview, but I absolutely believe we have angels among us and Maryann is definitely one of them. It’s not just the senior’s baskets, it’s about her as a human.

“She is well deserving of being recognized.”

For Purcell, who prefers to stay out of the limelight, the growing project is a way to pull the whole community together and she plans to keep growing it.

“It’s not just me, it’s everybody out there, one lady filled up nine boxes of food,” she said. “People are showing up dropping off hundreds of dollars of groceries out in my carport for this thing.”

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This year 13 baskets are being delivered to seniors on Dec. 15 by a senior volunteer and a young volunteer dressed as the Grinch.

While it's too late to contribute to the project this year, interested volunteers and sponsors can reach out to Purcell here to help with future initiatives.

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