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Her school group decided to assist Gabriel’s Horn in South Haven , a short-term shelter for homeless women and their children. In eighth grade, Oswald began an annual project to create personalized Easter baskets for the shelter’s clients, paid for by money she earned from babysitting or raised by donations. “I absolutely loved doing it,” recalled Oswald, who later attended Chesterton High School.
Most baskets included socks, hand lotion and a blanket. Others included handmade crafts, nail polish and perfume. For kids, she added toys, stuffed animals, and a book or two.
Easter baskets from a teenager gave those families something beyond the basic essentials. It gave them hope. Hope that others care about them, especially when they may be at their lowest point in life, and hope that their children can still celebrate Easter while away from home.
“Although it requires a lot of time, I have never regretted taking this on,” Oswald told me when she was a teenager. “If I have the ability to help people, then why not?” In 2022, Oswald returned to the Region after college and began volunteering at the Portage Resale Shop, where she fondly shared her childhood project with others. One couple surprised her by financially backing her project and she’s been doing it every year since.
Last month, the 24-year-old Portage woman shared her idea on Facebook, telling friends about her hardships while asking if anyone would be willing to donate. “If I am to at least donate to the local homeless shelter this year, I will need your help,” she wrote. Oswald also reconnected with Gabriel’s Horn to see how many clients would be residing there this Easter.
The shelter is at maximum capacity, 20 people, she was told. Oswald didn’t think she could raise enough money for that many baskets, which cost about $75 each to create. Then she circled back to her Facebook post.
“And I started crying,” Oswald said. Friends, strangers and former classmates began donating money. Her high school English teacher also shared the project background with friends, prompting more donations.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts “I cried about five times that week from the absolute outpouring of support,” Oswald said. A month later, she had raised more than $1,300, as well as donated candy and other items, for her Easter baskets. She shared her good news with her 31 donors: “Because of YOU, I am able to be the Easter Bunny for yet another year!” On Good Friday, Oswald and her brother delivered baskets to the shelter for its 20 current residents: 12 women and eight children she will likely never meet.
Each of the women received a large fuzzy blanket, new washcloths, socks, notebooks and pens, loofahs and face scrubbers, face/lip/eye masks and other odds and ends. Each notebook’s first page offers an inspiring handwritten message, such as this one: “Dear Ms. Gorgeous, there are people in this world who love you and value you, even if you don’t realize it.
Love, the Easter Bunny” Oswald included hand-picked lotions and body washes from Bath and Body Works. “I didn’t think I would get them this year, but I caught a two-day $6 body care sale,” she said. “I went a smidge over my personal budget, but this is important to me.
” Oswald once met a woman who received one of her Easter baskets. She mentioned how much she loved the new blanket, not a secondhand one. “She said every time she wrapped up in the blanket, she thought about how someone cared about her,” Oswald recalled.
“Ever since then, I have made sure to put a blanket in each basket.” Oswald also included a crochet mini bunny with a poem about staying strong and positive. “As a reminder that there will always be someone out there cheering them on,” Oswald told me after returning from Gabriel’s Horn.
The eight kids at the center received blankets and specific items based on their age, gender and interests. In the past year, Oswald received a few handwritten thank-you notes from kids who were living at the shelter. They were addressed to the Easter Bunny.
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