by Noella Noelophile®
“We have $3,500 worth of candy alone,” said Long Beach “Chief Inspiration Officer” Justin Rudd on Friday.
“So this operation, this year, is about a ninety-thousand-dollar…operation.”
And those figures were all about giving, as Long Beach’s fifteenth annual “Operation Easter Basket” came to a close.
Operation Easter Basket, 2019, had started on Wednesday morning, at Bay Shore Church’s Youth Center, in Belmont Shore.
Volunteers signed in and began the assembly process. Over the next two days, they would work volunteer shifts that totaled 17 hours.
They’d started with boxes of supplies and baskets that needed filling.
And packing, wrapping and “ribbon-ing” ensued. So did a careful count of completed baskets.
Volunteers started with an empty basket with Easter grass. Then, they’d walk along the wall, adding body wash, toothbrushes, school supplies, art supplies and toys.
Candy went in last.
The goal: to provide 3,500 Easter baskets to children in need. Age groups ranged from newborn to age sixteen. And approximately thirty nonprofits in the Long Beach area would be coming by to pick up the baskets, which they’d distribute at their Easter celebrations this weekend.
Since 2005, Justin and his 501c3 nonprofit “Community Action Team” have hosted “Operation Easter Basket”. At the beginning, Justin said, the event started at a volunteer’s home, and he simply asked local people to assemble Easter baskets and donate them.
“But we weren’t getting (many baskets to donate),” he explained, as he thanked the volunteers on Friday afternoon. “Some volunteers are not able, financially…to afford (the products that go in the baskets).”
(Each basket which “Operation Easter Basket” donates has a value of around $20-$25, and includes a variety of age-appropriate personal-hygiene products, school supplies, toys and, of course, Easter candy.)
Hence, the “reboot” to the current “assembly-line” event.
Annually, volunteers can sign up to donate time, and, as they can, bring supplies for the baskets. (A “wish list” is published on Justin’s website every year.)
In addition, individuals and community groups can still commit to assembling baskets on their own. At the start of each year, Community Action Team asks anyone in a position to donate completed baskets to get friends together and assemble five baskets to donate, with items from the “wish list” online.
Over the years, “Operation Easter Basket” has grown, to where community organizations and local businesses are donating time and supplies. Some organizations send supplies in bulk. Others donate pizza and soft drinks for the volunteers.
A number of the volunteers on site Friday were experiencing “Operation Easter Basket” for the first time. But for quite a few others, creating and donating the baskets is an Eastertime tradition.
“It’s kind of chaotic and fun, right?” Justin asked the volunteers just after Friday’s group picture.
It absolutely was. But it was organized, festive “chaos”.
Volunteers “staged” the baskets needed for each nonprofit coming by, to collect them. A specific number, in each age group, were called for, and set out to be collected.
Then, as the organizations’ representatives arrived, a “basket brigade” ensued.
One volunteer counted the baskets again as each person came through the door.
Meanwhile, supplies continued to arrive. So did donors with the baskets they’d created.
By mid-morning Friday, many of the local dollar stores had sold out of toothpaste, toothbrushes and body wash! As one volunteer made a run to get more supplies, Justin’s website listed which of the stores already were out of the necessary items.
“How do the organizations sign up to receive the baskets?” one volunteer asked, after our group picture.
Justin replied that he emails local nonprofits, each spring, and asks if they need Easter baskets to distribute. The organizations let him know the number they would like to have. Due to the fact that the nonprofits’ Easter celebrations are open to the public, Justin said, that number keeps growing.
This year, he said, the groups he’d contacted had asked for a total of more than 3,900 Easter baskets. The three organizations which serve the largest number of recipients are Long Beach Rescue Mission, COA (Christian Outreach in Action) and the Boys and Girls Club, of Long Beach. Consequently, they received the most baskets. At the Easter parties and celebrations these three nonprofits host, youth get to choose their own baskets.
I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing, and photographing, Operation Easter Basket for six years now. It’s always festive, warmhearted and a reminder of why Long Beach is a special place to live.
And that’s before Justin recruits a volunteer to make cookies for the onsite workers–as happened Wednesday.
(He brought the dough, said talented volunteer popped them into the oven!)
But, warm chocolate chips notwithstanding–back to the matter at hand. That goal of 3,500 Easter baskets?
According to Operation Easter Basket’s Facebook page, it’s been surpassed–and how. 3,864 baskets created/donated over the seventeen hours of Operation Easter Basket 2019! The recipients, says the post, are “31 organizations and schools in the Long Beach area”.
Happy Easter, everybody. Thank you to Justin, Ralph, Community Action Team and all the special people onsite this Easter week, for making Easter 2019 a great one.