LINCOLNSHIRE, IL – Bah Humbug! This holiday season’s toys cost a lot of money. But it will not stop three middle-income residents of Sedgebrook from going on a first-of-its-kind “financial research” shopping spree for their grandchildren. Their excursion will have national implications. Grandparents spend an average of $500 per year on their grandchildren. Grandparents collectively spend about $30 billion per year on grandchildren. Of that $30 billion, 38 percent is spent on toys, according to statistics compiled by Erickson.
Sedgebrook residents Bill Leroy, Harriet Wolfe, and Flora Dierbach have been given $1,500 to shop this week for this year’s “hot” toys as designated by KB Toys. They will search among hundreds of toys, including the likes of FurReal Friends Butterscotch Pony (Hasbro, $299.99), T.M.X. Elmo (Fischer-Price, $39.99), Baby Alive (Hasbro, $49.99), Lucky the Incredible Wonder Pup (Zizzle, $50), ‘Happy Feet’ Tap Dancing Mumble (Thinkway Toys, $34.99), and ‘Cars’ Fast Talkin’ Lightning McQueen (Mattel, $34.99).
They will haul the toys that they buy back to Sedgebrook, and play with them this Sunday, December 10, from 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., with their grandchildren and families at special play stations in the campus’s Monarch Café. The goal is to find out of their purchases were, indeed, the stuff of children’s Christmas dreams past, present, and future. More than 100 Sedgebrook residents, staff, and children are participating in this project.
Their December 10th intergenerational toy play will be filmed by Retirement Living TV (RL-TV), the nation’s only cable television venue with programming specifically for people over age 55. The residents will be interviewed for a segment of “The Daily Apple,” a show that examines health and wellness topics. RL-TV airs on DIRECTV Channel 238, from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. (Central), Monday through Friday, as well as on CN8 The Comcast Channel, from Noon – 4 p.m. (Eastern), Monday through Friday. A total of 24 million households nationwide are reached through this programming,