It’s a thing a lot of parents are doing this time of year: Making Easter baskets for kids. But in a Thousand Oaks office building, about a dozen volunteers are busy making them for foster and at-risk kids.
It’s especially meaningful for one of the volunteers, who is here with his wife and nine-year-old daughter.
"I was taken away from my biological parents at the age of four. Luckily, I was adopted at the age of seven," said James Shipe.
He said the Easter basket project might not seem like a big deal, but when you're a kid without a permanent home, it can mean the world.
"I can tell you when I was a foster, I had a pillow sack, with a toothbrush and a Curious George monkey (stuffed animal). That's all I had until I was adopted, because I bounced around foster homes, and wasn't allowed to take much with me. Doing something like this where they (the kids) can actually celebrate Easter, it's something I never had."
The Rotary Club of Westlake Village is doing the baskets, which are going to a Newbury Park-based nonprofit called James Storehouse. It helps kids in foster care, young adults who’ve aged out of foster care, at-risk children, and kids who are survivors of sexual abuse.
There are close to a hundred baskets in this room, which will go towards the nonprofit’s goal of collecting, and distributing a thousand baskets.
"For the past four years, the Rotarians have donated money, and donated goodies, and then we help out James Storehouse, which will deliver this year a thousand Easter baskets," said Chris Daleiden, who is running the Rotary Easter basket project. She said they are filled with food, games, art supplies, and toys.
James Shipe said it feels great to be here helping, especially with his wife, Andy, and his nine-year-old daughter Lilu also involved. He said he hopes it makes life a little bit better for some of the kids going through what he lived.
"Oh, 100%, right? To be the child and know what they're going through," said Shipe. "It's kind of unexplainable, to now being able to give back, when no one was really here for me, uh, it's...I don't even know how to explain it. It's full circle in a way, I guess."
Shipe and his family are doing much more than making Easter baskets for the kids. They are in the process of adopting. They’re hoping by this time next year, they will have a new addition, and their daughter will have a new sister.
