Easter in Wallingford - Community Gives Back to In-Need Families

For the past two years, G&G Beverage Distributors employees Heather Bernardi and Liz Johnson have crafted Easter baskets for in-need families in Wallingford, Connecticut.

Bernardi and Johnson work closely with the United Way of Meriden and Wallingford, finding community programs that can use the donations.

This year, through donations given from their co-workers and their own hard work and dedication, Bernardi and Johnson crafted 36 baskets, sharing them with the Spanish Community of Wallingford and the Wallingford Community Day Care Center.

“It's a great feeling to give back to the places I've used in my life,” Bernardi explains.

Filling the baskets with canned goods, candies, egg-coloring kits and other Easter products, Bernardi and Johnson were able to share their work on Thursday, March 28, bringing and evenly distributing the baskets between the two locations.

“There may be some day where you or I may need help,” Johnson said as she explained why she helps. To her, it’s a tough world out there and it’s a sense of satisfaction to help people in need.

“Now is the time to do it,” Johnson states.

To Bernardi, she realized that Christmas and Thanksgiving may be big holidays, but Easter is one that not too many people think about. She also runs an adopt-a-family during the Christmas season, but there’s no reason to neglect Easter.

Kathy Queen, Executive Director at the Wallingford Community Day Care Center, has seen a lot of kids come and go.

Starting off as a day care center for local families, in the past 40 years their goal has shifted from child care to early childhood education. Now a nationally accredited program, the center is in the top six percent for education.

“We hope all our students do well,” Queen says.

Bernardi, who used the center in the past, wanted to give back as a thank you for all the help they gave her.

“That is at the heart of our being,” Queen explains. Receiving baskets and other gifts from the community isn’t just for the child, however, but to benefit the whole family. When a family from the area who has received help in the past gives back, it’s a great feeling.

“That’s what community is all about,” Queen states.