Spencer FFA and Spencer Fire Department Deliver Easter Baskets to Area Youth
More than 100 Easter baskets were distributed this morning throughout the Spencer School District, thanks to the efforts of Spencer FFA, with help from Spencer Fire Department.
For the last 20 years, Spencer FFA has hosted a popular community Easter egg hunt, distributing thousands of Easter eggs to young children. Though the event had to be cancelled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with help from the community, the FFA members devised an alternative creative solution to bring Easter joy to kids in the community.
“We got the idea to do this basket project because my sister and I were riding back from farm chores and just talking about everything we missed because of the craziness going on right now,” said Cortney Zimmerman. “We couldn’t go to church or have our Easter egg hunt and after realizing all the kids we impacted with that Easter egg hunt, we were wondering what we could do for those kids and how we could make something fun out of this for their own Easter.”
After learning that parents were telling their kids that the Easter Bunny wouldn’t be able to deliver eggs for the hunt that year, sisters Cortney and Katelyn Zimmerman had the idea of creating and delivering Easter baskets full of toys and games that kids could enjoy while stuck at home.
“We reached out to a bunch of sponsors and got quite a few sponsorships,” said Cortney. “We got gift cards and coupons for food.”
They also posted their idea and request for donations, along with a sign-up form for parents, on social media and were overjoyed with the response from the community.
“It breaks our heart to not be putting on our Annual Easter Egg Hunt this year. But…we are offering a new opportunity for Spencer students grades pre-k through 3rd!,” the post said. “Even though we haven’t been in our blue jackets and hosting our weekly officer meetings, we still want to impact our community!”
Throughout the process, participants maintained social distance and sanitized.
“Social distancing is really important to maintain at this time, so to assemble the baskets, we made sure we had a small crew to work on that and we made sure we were choosing things that weren’t going to cause a risk of transfer while shopping,” said Cortney. “We didn’t do food products or drinks, except pre-packaged candy. While assembling, there were just a few of us and we maintained our distance.”
She added that those distributing were also wearing masks.
“We ended up making some really cool baskets with different activities like seed-growing kits and puzzles and card games and stuffed animals and toys, so we have just a good variety of things for kids of different ages to participate in,” said Katelyn.
Spencer children eagerly watched from windows as baskets were delivered. Watch video for more!
