The Gift of Normal
We can all probably relate to the struggle of finding fun and safe things to do over the past year. For Pause families, finding safe environments for runners, places accessible to wheelchairs or places to go that are sensory friendly can be difficult to access - Covid times or not. At Pause, we’re all about fun - it’s one of our core values! Family and traditions are also important to us because we believe they nurture family connections, give us a sense of belonging and help us create memories. That’s why we created our annual Easter Eggstravaganza event for families to look forward to each year!
On March 27th, 41 Pause families and 92 Pause kiddos were able to attend a socially distanced Easter event with options to visit the Easter bunny, hunt for Easter eggs based on their developmental ability, redeem tickets for resilience building prizes, take-home customized Easter baskets, AND have the opportunity to “egg” their neighbors with a ready-to-go community service project.
The CAN DO Network made it possible!
YOU donated 106 Easter baskets and 914 basket goodies! Caregivers customized each basket online and picked them up at the event so they could avoid busy stores - a safety concern for medically fragile children.
YOU helped us collect 4,668 plastic Easter eggs so every Pause kiddo who attended the event could hunt for eggs filled with words of affirmation and shower some Easter love to their neighbors too!
YOU recruited 45 volunteer helpers or volunteered yourself to help us create a magical Easter wonderland. A special thank you to all our volunteers from Fairfield Leadership Club and Liberty Bible Academy! We are SO appreciative of your hard work!
Special shout outs to our CAN DO members and community partners...
Our two AWESOME photographers who volunteered their time to capture the joy of our Pause kiddos. Thank YOU Katie Laughlin from Cin Day Photo and Faith Bogard!
Stacy Dickman who created incredible decorations to capture the feeling of fun - your passion is contagious!
Emma Probus from Miami University who brought the Easter bunny to life!
Jupiter Coffee and Donuts and Raymond’s Pizza who helped Pause fuel our volunteers!
Center Pointe Christian Church for hosting this event. Thank YOU for your continued support!
Our grant funders at Strong Families, Safe Communities (Ohio Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services) & Ohio Children's Trust Fund.
We think you are pretty amazing, but our families do too:
“This was so great!! The background <was> adorable and picking up the baskets was quick and easy. Such a great event, very well planned, organized, covid friendly... so great to see our Pause family and have hope for more events like this one... makes things feel normal again. I loved that this was done as a family activity. Separation is hard for my kiddo and we enjoy seeing their joy at these events. Wonderful event, wonderfully done and very very very much appreciated. Thank you soo much Pause team You Rocked it!! (once again :)”
The gift of normal. This is CAN DO. This is COMMUNITY. This is YOUR SUPPORT.
