Siblings help isolated seniors combat loneliness with video messages, care packages

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A 16-year-old high school student and her 10-year-old brother are helping isolated senior citizens around the world combat their loneliness during the coronavirus pandemic through care packages and personalized video messages. 

Since March, Hita and Divit Gupta have been sending care packages, each with a handwritten note, to retirement homes in Pennsylvania through their nonprofit, Brighten A Day. 

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Hita Gupta got the idea after a retirement home where she had been volunteering told her that she wouldn't be able to visit the center for the foreseeable future in order to keep the residents, who had been deemed an at-risk population, safe. 

Brighten A Day (Hita Gupta)

"That's what got me thinking about what I could do to help seniors fight isolation because they weren't allowed to see any family or friends," Hita Gupta told Fox News. 

Loneliness has always been such a problem, especially for older people, she said.

"During a pandemic, the biggest concern in any senior living community is social isolation," Brandi Barksdale, the director of life enrichment at Artis Senior Living of Huntingdon Valley in Pennsylvania, told Fox News.

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As word spread about what the siblings were doing, "more people wanted to pitch in," Hita Gupta said. She quickly became "overwhelmed" with the amount of support she was receiving. 

Brighten A Day (Hita Gupta)

Now, with the help of volunteers in countries from Canada to Australia, Brighten A Day is sending packages, cards and pre-recorded video messages to droves of senior citizens. 

"It is so easy to bring a smile to these seniors and really alleviate their loneliness," she said, adding that many of the messages brought residents to tears. 

The siblings also started coordinating video and telephone calls between volunteers and seniors after multiple facilities said that an actual conversation would boost residents' morale tremendously.

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Barksdale said Artis Senior Living's residents receive "words of encouragement from volunteers around the country." 

"Our residents have been happier and more engaged since we have partnered with Brighten A Day," Barksdale said. "They have something to look forward to."

Brighten A Day (Hita Gupta)

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What the Guptas didn't realize initially was that many facilities lacked the technology to conduct live video calls. One facility even said that it only had one phone for residents to chat with family or volunteers.  

So, the siblings set out to fix that too. They began collecting various electronics from tablets to phones. 

"It was an easy way to virtually send a smile to a senior," Hita Gupta said.