After Bob Zimmerman retired from his last job as a fundraiser for the Art Institute, he found himself without family members nearby nor a community of work-related friends surrounding him.

Zimmerman, now 80, had moved into a high-rise building on the Near North Side. Being alone hadn’t always inspired the healthiest behavior. “When your family is so far away from you, you’re kind of lonely, and so there’s a tendency to drink too much, to eat too much,” he said.

At least one organization was reaching out and checking in. For the past 10 years, Zimmerman has found a social life with Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly.

Little Brothers is a nonprofit based on the Near West Side. Since 1959, Little Brothers has sought to connect isolated older people with activities and friends — sometimes just a person to talk to. The network serves people 70 and older, in nine U.S. cities and abroad.

During the holiday season, a traditional time of gathering for families and friends, Little Brothers ramps up an operation to see that hundreds of seniors across Chicago get a present hand-delivered by one of the organization’s volunteers.

Staffers collect gift requests from people participating in its programs and use the requests to create a database. Volunteers and sponsors then pay for the presents, which the volunteers drop off. They usually spend about an hour visiting with each senior.

This year, the organization received nearly 1,000 gift requests. They range from the practical (a reclining chair) to the delectable (a sweet potato pie). One man requested a calendar of “nice” ladies, according to Christine Bertrand, coordinator of the holiday gift program. During a previous holiday season, a 93-year-old requested — and got — a final trip to Las Vegas, with a volunteer along as a travel companion and chaperone.

The idea is to give out gifts that are personal instead of generic. “I like to say, the sky is the limit if we can get it. We can make it special,” Bertrand says.

That means, besides careful selection of the gifts, attention to such details as ensuring cookies dropped off to people in nursing homes are homemade and including cards made by young volunteers.

Last Friday, Zimmerman opened the door to his corner apartment, a place decorated with paintings of Christian saints and traditional Japanese prints, to volunteer Michael Nugent, a Chicagoan who runs a travel planning firm.

The gift that Nugent gave Zimmerman included a note from a young Little Brothers volunteer: “Dear friend, I hope you have a great holiday! How are you today? What is your favorite sports team? I like the Wisconsin Badger football team. My favorite food is sushi. From, Anders.”

While Zimmerman appreciated the gift — candy appropriate for a diabetic, a $20 gift card to Jewel — he seemed equally grateful for the help Nugent gave him arranging the lights on his Christmas tree and the time they spent talking about different Catholic parishes around Chicago, health and medicine and Little Brothers.

Later, Nugent walked to another nearby high-rise to visit 88-year-old Patricia Trakas, who was listening to NPR and taking a little coffee prior to traveling into the Loop for a party.

For Trakas, there was a poinsettia and a bag of crackers and cookies, as well as $25 gift card to Target and a pillow that Nugent placed on her bed.

She’s relied on Little Brothers for five years.

“It’s just knowing someone is there for me,” Trakas says. “It’s knowing I could call them up and probably get Michael,” she said, referring to Nugent.

To which, Nugent, who has been involved with Little Brothers for 35 years, responded with smile and said, “Oh, yeah!”

For more information about Little Brothers, visit the organization’s Web site www.littlebrothers.org or call 312-455-1000.

Contact: mmaidenberg@chicagojournal.com