It started with around 300 baskets in 2021. Then it got to around 900 last year. This year, Lynnfield residents and organizations put together 1,258 Easter baskets for La Colaborativa, a Chelsea-based social services organization that focuses on uplifting people through food and housing security and economic advancement.
At La Colaborativa’s Easter Spring Festival this Saturday, the baskets will be distributed to kids between the ages of 2 and 13 years old.
Lynnfield residents Linda Ladd, Barbara Langill, Debbie Cotting, and Denise Weaver, along with the Centre Congregational Church, spearheaded the campaign and met every Tuesday night for the past five weeks at the church to organize it.
This year, a second-grade Lynnfield Brownie Troop, the Lynnfield Rotary, the Lynnfield Catholic Collaborative, and the Lynnfield High School Interact Club helped as well.
According to Langill, the Centre Church made its biggest donation yet this year, matched churchgoers’ donations to the initiative, and pulled together the community to help fill the baskets.
“It takes a village, it takes a lot of people to put it together,” Langill said. “And so we appreciate the support. We couldn’t do it without the church, you know, supporting, matching the gifts, putting it out there on Facebook. People were so generous.”
Each basket contains plastic eggs, a chocolate bunny, bubbles, candy, chalk, crayons, coloring books, and a stuffed animal. New additions this year are special baskets that contain baby-safe products, which will be given to kids who are 3 years old or younger. Organizers also prepared goody bags containing $5 Dunkin’ gift cards, candy, and a chocolate bunny.
