Bunny Hop delivers Easter goodies, smiles to area seniors
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Deborah Balogh, left, receives a stuffed bunny from the Easter bunny during a Bunny Hop at McMurray Hills Manor in McMurray on Monday.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Residents of McMurray Hills Manor enjoyed a moment with the Easter bunny during a Bunny Hop event coordinated by Gateway Hospice. Gateway has provided stuffed Easter bunnies and Easter bags for seniors at several nursing homes and senior residences in the area over the past week.
Courtesy of Gateway Hospice
The Easter bunny delivered stuffed Easter bunnies and Easter bags to residents at Strabane Woods in Washington as part of Gateway Hospice’s Bunny Hop, which provided goodies to residents in several senior living facilities and nursing homes in Washington County and surrounding counties.
Residents of McMurray Hills Manor and Premiere Washington Health Center took part in an early Easter celebration on Monday, when the Easter bunny, along with Gateway Hospice volunteers, delivered stuffed Easter bunnies, Easter bags, and plenty of smiles as part of the Gateway Hospice Bunny Hop.
Gateway Hospice volunteers and employees have spent the past week hopping to senior living facilities and nursing homes in Washington County and surrounding counties to celebrate Easter with seniors.
In all, Gateway will distribute about 600 stuffed bunnies and other critters, chocolate eggs and bunnies, and other goodies as part of its Embracing Life campaign.
“This is so nice. I love my bunny,” said Deborah Balogh, who chatted briefly with the Easter bunny and FaceTimed with her granddaughter to show her the festively decorated building.
Amanda DeGusipe, a nurse at Gateway Hospice, said the Bunny Hop is a variation of the MaryBelle Baby Doll Project, which distributes baby dolls and teddy bears to seniors with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
DeGusipe founded the MaryBelle Baby Doll Project – named for her grandmother – in 2019, after seeing that holding a baby doll decreased stress and agitation in her grandmother and other Alzheimer’s patients.
“Seniors love to care for something, they love something familiar,” said DeGusipe. “The bunnies brighten their day.”
DeGusipe spent the past month-and-a-half collecting donations of stuffed bunnies and other items for the Bunny Hop. Several businesses, organizations, schools, and individuals contributed to the drive.
Children from the Bradley Center in Pittsburgh, which helps children and teens who experience trauma, mental illness, and behavioral challenges, decorated all of the bags. Elementary school students made cards that were included in many of the bags.
Last week, 102-year-old Agnes Brandon, a resident of Strabane Woods, was a recipient of a bunny and an Easter basket. The Easter basket, Brandon said, was the first she ever received.
Brandon, whose father immigrated from Scotland and worked in the steel mill in Donora, grew up during the Great Depression and her family was too poor to provide Easter baskets. Her neighbors, she said, boiled a dozen eggs and brought them to her house for the holiday.
Brandon told the volunteers who dropped off her Easter gifts, “The Lord sent people like you to help us. God bless you.”
DeGusipe said Gateway Hospice’s goal through Embracing Life is to improve the quality of life for seniors.
“A lot of times you hear the word ‘hospice’ and you think that means the end and giving up, but that is not it. It’s about focusing on the quality of life,” said DeGusipe. “Our whole goal is quality of life, and this is part of it.”