A Passion Becomes a Service to the Elderly and Their Caretakers

Treats For Treasures is a volunteer organization started by Sydney Culver, who lives in Magnolia, TX. Sydney started Treats For Treasures in August 2011, when she was 15 years old. Sydney wanted to find a way to combine two of her favorite passions: baking and caring for the elderly and their caretakers.

One of Sydney’s close friends lives in a residential assisted living center. Unlike large assisted living centers, residential assisted living centers are based in single-family homes found throughout subdivisions and neighborhoods everywhere. The homes have been retrofitted so that all of the bedrooms are individual rooms for senior citizens. They share a kitchen and living room space. Caretakers work in shifts to provide the residents with homemade meals, help with medications, activities and many other needs.

Because these small residential assisted living homes are not heavily advertised, they often do not receive the attention from churches, Scout groups and other volunteer organizations that reach out to senior citizens in assisted living facilities.ities. So Sydney decided to begin baking “Treats” (cakes, cupcakes, brownies, pies — anything yummy) for the “Treasures” (residents and caretakers) of residential senior assisted living homes in Spring, The Woodlands and Tomball, Texas areas. Her first delivery was to Ultimate Care By God's Providers in August 2011.

Today, Sydney continues to deliver Treats For Treasures, and has grown the organization tremendously, delivering now to six homes including; Ultimate Care By God’s Providers, Ultimate Care By God's Angels, Ultimate Care By God's Servants, King's Palace, Chateau Woodlands, and Helen's Care Cottages. On average each month, about 80 residents and staff are delivered treats.

The organization has expanded to more than delivering baked goods. During months with special holidays; Christmas, Valentine’s, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Sydney creates special gifts that are delivered to residents and staff. These have included such things as; blankets for the residents, key chains for the staff, homemade Valentine’s cards; Valentine boxes filled with chocolates, conversational hearts, cards and an antibacterial soap; giant Easter baskets filled with puzzles, goodies and much more.

To reach her goals, Sydney has organized help of other volunteers ranging from one to five each month, to bake treats. These volunteers may not have the means to deliver the baked goods, so Sydney works with these volunteers to organize recipes to bake, schedules the pickup, packs the treats and delivers to anticipating recipients.

To make birthdays a special occasion, Sydney spends time each month updating records with each house, ensuring correct names and birth dates for both residents and staff; as turnover is fairly frequent. Every month, a personal birthday card is sent to each resident and caretaker who is having a birthday that month.

Sydney makes deliveries to each of the six residential assisted living facilities the first weekend of every month with the route to reach all of the homes being approximately 60 miles. The deliveries to the homes range from four to six hours each month, depending on how long she visits at each house, how much there is to deliver and other factors. She also spends several hours per month updating her Facebook page; Treats For Treasures and website www.treatsfortreasures.com.

Each month requires several hours of baking, assembling special treats, and organizing the group of volunteers.

Sydney plans to continue Treats For Treasures indefinitely, with her next goal of finding other girls to carry on her vision.