Summer Fun Baskets Bring Joy to All Involved

For the last few years, Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) faculty members Judith Eisenberg and Kim Marganski have joined forces with the Philoptochos Society of St Barbara’s Greek Orthodox Church in Orange, Connecticut each spring to provide families with what were originally Easter Baskets but are now called Summer Fun Baskets.

The transition to summer fun baskets was made in 2020, when Easter was significantly impacted by COVID-19. Spring and summer held the promise of getting outside to play, and there was a great need for new activities after the long confinement of the early pandemic.

“We pick the baskets up and distribute to our clients who receive them with such joy and delight! I think the Summer Fun Baskets were even more needed and appreciated after the trauma and deprivations of that first pandemic season,” commented Eisenberg.

Provided with an anonymous list of children’s ages and interests, members of the society divide up the families and put together gift baskets tailored for those children’s needs. The current president of the society, Penny Mitchell added, “This labor of compassion was done from the hearts of all of our ladies involved and filled with love. I believe I speak for all of us in saying that we love what we do especially when it enriches the lives of children.”

The recipients of the baskets are participants in local social services programs including YCSC’s Intensive Family Preservation (IFP), an in-home program that works with parents and guardians to meet the needs of their children so they can remain safely together in the home.

“It’s truly our pleasure and really a labor of love when we take on this outreach project! We have an amazing group of women who look forward to this and volunteer for it every year,” said society member Eleni Vautrin, who has been instrumental in coordinating this annual undertaking.