Woman gives helping hand to Easter bunny

George Gongora/Caller-Times

David Molyneaux (from left), Priscilla Gutierrez and Perry Zelner are helping to get Easter baskets to needy kids through a program started by the Nueces County Community Partners Board.

Priscilla Gutierrez may be 23 years old and married, but the pre-school teacher at Central Christian Academy still gets an Easter basket from her parents every year.
   Gutierrez read a column published here March 25 about the Nueces County Community Partners Board's effort to provide Easter baskets for every abused and neglected child with whom Child Protective Services is working. It saddened her to think of children who don't experience the wonder of Easter.
   "I work with 2-year-olds every day," Gutierrez said. "I've done this line of work for the past four years and I've come to understand that every memory they have impacts them one way or another. They may be young, but they'll remember."
   Gutierrez can't erase the painful circumstances abused and neglected children find themselves in, but she decided that helping the Nueces County Community Partners Board with its Easter drive would be her small way of making these youngsters feel like children and not just names on a case file.

How you can help: To donate a filled Easter basket, call Central Christian Academy at 851-8747 or call the Nueces County Community Partners Board at 878-7552.

   Gutierrez took the idea of schoolwide participation in the effort to the academy's director, Perry Zelner, who enthusiastically embraced the suggestion.
   The project, however, has now grown to involve its church staff and congregation. The academy also sent letters to all parents asking them to consider contributing a filled basket.
   "I give Priscilla all the credit for this endeavor," Zelner said. "I think it's important that a community reaches out to all needy children."
   The academy also will accept donated baskets from the community. Deadline is Monday. The Nueces County Community Partners Board, whose goal this year is to gather 750 Easter baskets, will distribute them among CPS children.
   "My parents made Easter a major tradition in the family," Gutierrez said. "No matter how old we get, we always get our own basket."
   Gutierrez is the oldest of three children. As she and her siblings have matured, Easter basket fillings have evolved from chocolate bunnies and jellybeans to fingernail polish, other grooming items and gift certificates.
   "I can't imagine being a child and waking up on Easter morning and not finding at least an Easter basket," said Gutierrez, who showers her 5-year-old godson with a new Easter basket every year. "And no matter how old he gets, he'll continue to get one from me."