Meals, gifts delivered at two elementary schools
Inspired Hearts and Hands hosted its third annual Christmas celebration Saturday at Emily Brittain and Broad Street elementary schools.
From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. families of school students stopped by to enjoy games and receive a fresh take-home meal, home-baked cookies, drinks and snacks. In addition, each student received a gift as well as a holiday food box filled with essential nonperishable food and a $10 Aldi gift card. Helping with the event were nearly 75 volunteers that included Inspired Hearts and Hands volunteers from corporate sponsor MSA Safety Inc. of Cranberry Township and Butler Area School District faculty and staff.
Kim McBride, of Inspired Hearts and Hands, said 600 students at the two schools, as well as their siblings, received gift bags linked to tags taken from 15 “Angel Trees” placed in area businesses, in addition to the food boxes. Each gift bag’s value was approximately $65.
“Inspired Hearts and Hands was started 10 years ago by Mindy Schnitgen in her garage to provide food baskets for Thanksgiving,” McBride said.
The charity has grown to include providing gifts and food boxes for land developments in Butler and surrounding counties, including McQuistion Elementary School, Moniteau School District, Mars School District, Pine Richland School District, Butler Emergency Shelter, CCR’s Butler Veterans Program, the Veterans Place of Washington Boulevard and Thomas Village of Gibsonia. In total, it will have provided nearly 1,200 food boxes for Thanksgiving and Christmas and nearly 1,025 individuals with Christmas gifts.
McBride said the charity’s next event will be its Summer Fest, a back-to-school event that provides students with a meal box, new or gently used school clothing and a new pair of sneakers.
