The Alpha Kappa Alpha Wiregrass Alumni Association, Kappa Pi Omega Chapter, chose the seniors at the Troy Nutrition Center as the recipients for its 2014 Christmas project.

Vickie Robinson said AKA members design a project each Christmas season as a way of giving back to the community, and this year the organization thought whom better to show appreciation to than a community’s senior adults.

“This year, we decided to collect socks for the senior adults,” Robinson said. “And, we wanted to involve school children, so we invited the second grade students at Troy Elementary School to donate socks for our seniors.”

Robinson said the students were excited to be involved and were very generous in their giving. The students donated 104 pairs of socks of all different styles and colors to the seniors.

Several AKA members visited the Troy Nutrition Center Monday and delivered the socks to the seniors.

Some of the regular participants were visiting relatives for the holidays; others had relatives visiting in their homes and the rain kept a few at home and away from the nutrition center.

“Attendance was down, mainly, because of the holidays,” said Shelia Deveridge, Center director. “So, that meant more socks for those who were here, and they had a ball picking out the socks they wanted. This was a real treat for them.”

The AKAs came prepared with a couple of door prizes for the seniors to have a chance to win while receiving socks Monday. Each senior was given a numbered ticket in a drawing for a turkey and a gift basket.

Robinson said the AKAs enjoyed visiting the Troy Nutrition Center and getting to know the participants through the sock drive.

“This was one of our ways of giving back to the community,” she said. “We also had Christmas for six children. We gave each of them a $200 Walmart gift certificate, so they could go shopping and select what they would like for Christmas.”

Robinson said the children were selected based on need.

“AKA is a working organization, and we want to always give back to our communities,” Robinson said.

The Alpha Kappa Alpha Wiregrass Alumni Association, Kappa Pi Omega Chapter has 124 members in Troy, Dothan, Ozark and Enterprise. The Chapter commits to community projects involving health, education, technology and the economy.

Deveridge expressed appreciation to AKA for its generosity to the participants at the Troy Nutrition Center.

“The generosity and caring of AKA lifted the spirits of our participants and helped make their Christmas merry and bright,” she said.

AKA members who visited the Troy Nutrition Center Monday were Venessa Johnson, Tara Davenport, Cynthia Thomas, Wennifer Cameron and Dana Wilson. Mary Flowers, a teacher at TES also participated in the project.