Rock of the Redeemer holds Easter basket drive
It follows a successful Angel Tree campaign in December.
The Rock of the Redeemer in Elizabeth Township provided more than 65 Easter baskets for area children this year.
The one-year-old nonprofit organization aimed to cultivate a nondenominational Christian community hub on the grounds of the Sisters of the Divine Redeemer, who have been at the location since the 1950s.
Rock of the Redeemer president Daniel McLaughlin told the Mon Valley Independent in December a 10-member board of directors was formed to operate the nonprofit arm of the church.
The Rock, with the help of Director Lori Montari, partnered with the Turtle Creek Family Care Connection Center through UPMC.
Their goal is to help families throughout the initial stages of parenthood, and through children’s early development from pregnancy through age 5, along with providing the best level of care for children.
“They have families that a lot of them are working, but they don’t make enough to sustain,” Montari said. “So they help them with food and diapers, and they have training for them. They have cooking classes for them, baby care and more.”
Montari added that The Rock started working with the center when they were doing Angel Trees in December. They helped around 200 families with gifts for kids during the holidays.
They wanted to do something similar with the Easter baskets, according to Montari. They purchased the baskets, and committed to helping around 50 children.
“I started doing the Easter Basket Challenge at my last job a few years back,” Montari said. “And then when I left there, I wanted to be able to continue because there’s a lot of families at Easter that can’t afford Easter baskets for the kids.”
Montari asked people who go to the church and the community if they could take an Easter basket to fill or if they could bring in items for other baskets to be filled.
Each Easter basket was labeled whether it was for a boy or a girl, along with the age of the child.
On March 23, the last day of collection, several volunteers went to the church to organize the baskets and put everything together.
They ended up with 68 Easter baskets that volunteers and some of the Sisters of the Divine Redeemer delivered last week to the center for the center to distribute to families “Most people took the Easter baskets, and it was amazing,” Montari said. “They were beautiful. They did such a nice job. Everybody did such a nice job on them.”
The church had a large community event last weekend that featured an Easter egg hunt for kids, animals from Burton Farm, Easter craft stations, pictures with the Easter Bunny and more.
The Rock is also continuing its dress drive, with First Holy Communion dresses, Mother of the Bride dresses and more.
Any questions can be directed to Montari at 412-439-1835, and anyone looking to book an appointment can email lori@therockoftheredeemer. org.
Montari called the Easter events, especially the basket collection, a success this year.
“The Rock of the Redeemer, our existence is to help people,” Montari said. “What we stand for, what we want to do, is reach out in the community and help people. So this was just one of those events that we thought we could hopefully make a difference in a child’s life.”
