NIAGARA CHARITY HOPPING TO HELP FAMILIES AT EASTER

HELP NEEDED TO FILL BASKETS WITH TREATS

Many children look forward to finding surprises in their baskets on Easter morning.

With the cost of living these days, it's those extra things like Easter treats that are difficult for some families to afford when they're already struggling to make ends meet.

Fort Erie's Mindy Leveille is hoping to make sure the Easter Bunny hops along to every child's house with surprises to brighten their day.

The founder of the Niagara Area Children's Assistance Program (NACAP) is calling on the community for help with monetary donations as well as small toys.

"Easter is one of our biggest assistance programs. So many organizations help with Christmas, but there aren't any other programs that help with Easter,"

Leveille said.

Registration for the program opened Monday (March 20) and by the end of the day, 89 families had submitted applications for

the program.

"So far, we have more than 220 children," Leveille said of the number of children expected to be helped.

Leveille said she expects

that number to grow over the course of the week.

In addition to its Easter assistance program, NACAP offers hampers at

Christmas, Thanksgiving and back-to-school help to families and their children across Niagara.

At Christmas time, NACAP also saw an increase in requests for help.

"About 93 per cent of families who registered with us at Christmas had never registered with us before. Normally, we see recurring families," Leveille said.

"Many of the people who have come to us for help are single parents working full-time jobs."

Needed items for the Easter program include new skipping ropes, chalk, bubbles, crayons, colouring books, bug catchers and new and gently used bikes, skateboards and skates.

NACAP previously had a brick-and-mortar location and is looking for another permanent building to operate out of instead of volunteers homes. Dropoff locations in Fort Erie and St. Catharines can be arranged.

Monetary donations can be made directly on NACAP's website at www.nacap.ca, or by sending an e-transferred at nacap@outlook.com.

To register for Easter help email Leveille at info@nacap.ca. The baskets will be distributed just before Easter weekend.