School group donates 100 Easter baskets to Samaritan Center

With two bus loads of children, Brenda Johnson, Thomas Jefferson Middle School Pride Team teacher, delivered 100 Easter baskets to the Samaritan Center on Monday.

The children put together the baskets as part of a service learning project. As part of the project, they collected all the stuffed animals, small toys, eggs filled with candy and grass to fill the basket and then wrapped them up in brown paper bags.

Ben De Feo, spokesman for Samaritan Center, said most of the baskets that are donated to them come from groups.

In addition to school projects, some of the churches in town have women's groups that put baskets together as part of their benevolent projects.

Typically, the groups will bring in 50 to 100 baskets at a time, but there are individuals who will bring in some baskets on their own. There is also a team of students who come over to help put together baskets from donated items.

As of Monday, the Samaritan Center had collected about 600 baskets and had given away nearly 150 to families in need. Basket distribution began Thursday and will continue until the Thursday before Easter or until the baskets run out.

“Last year we gave out more than 800 baskets, so we made that our goal for this year,” De Feo said.