Group launches Easter aid early due to high demand

Meet Me at the Court got an early start on its 10th annual Sharion Bailey Whitlock Proclamation and Birthday Celebration Weekend.

Initially, the Easter event was set for March 29 31 but Veronica Bailey, founder and CEO of MMC, a local nonprofit organization, said that due to the volume of requests she received for free Easter baskets and soul food dinner plates, the group decided to launch the SBWPBCW on Thursday.

Like most MMC events, the SBWPBCW honors Bailey’s late sister, Whitlock, who passed away following an illness in February of 2012, just two months shy of her 52nd birthday on April 3.

The event includes an Easter basket giveaway for children in El Dorado and Union County and the distribution of hot soul food meals throughout the community on Easter Sunday.

Bailey has stressed that MMC does not specify a particular area to hand out the baskets and the meals but that has not stopped requests for both from pouring in.

“I have received an overflow of calls and people have stopped me in stores. I’m just getting all kinds of approaches,” said Bailey.

“It’s always a good thing and we have such a good time doing it,” she continued. “We’ve come into contact with so many people that are in need of dinner and we’ve had parents and grandparents ask for Easter baskets for their children, some with special needs.”

Donations have also rolled in to MMC and by Thursday afternoon, Bailey said the group had stockpiled nearly 250 Easter baskets to hand out area children over the next few days.

The Easter basket giveaway was to have begun today but Bailey said MMC volunteers made plans to start Thursday evening at the Boys & Girls Club of Smackover.

“We usually do the proclamation weekend for two days and this year, we had already extended it to a third day, (Easter) Sunday, but we couldn’t do it in two days. We couldn’t do it in three days, so now we’re going to do four and we’re going to be going all over the place,” Bailey explained.

The group will head out at approximately 5:15 p.m. today for another round of Easter basket giveaways and will continue on Saturday and Sunday in El Dorado, Urbana, Old Union and other areas in Union County.

Also on Sunday, MMC volunteers will hand out dinner plates with cabbage, candied yams, macaroni and cheese, Hot Water Cornbread, fried or smoked chicken, dessert and a beverage.

Bailey said that while the meals will be distributed to the community at large, there will be a particular focus on the homeless population and residential areas with a high concentration of senior citizens.

She reminded recipients that documentation — such as proof of income, household information and other personal information — is not required to receive a free Easter basket or a meal.

Some Easter baskets will include basketballs and footballs and some recipients will also receive a doll, all of which were made possible with donations, said Bailey.

The Easter basket giveaways will continue at noon on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Soul food meals will also be delivered on Sunday. “We will start at two o’clock because we wanted to be considerate of the time that people are getting out of church and getting home and getting comfortable and getting ready to eat their dinner,” said Bailey.

“There is no limit on the (number) of plates that somebody can receive. We will serve it until it is all served,” she added.

The Easter basket giveaways will end on Sunday but the giving will not stop there for MMC.

MMC youth members will conduct two mission projects on April 3, Whitlock’s birthday.

The group plans to donate at least 200 canned goods to the Salvation Army of El Dorado’s food pantry.

Bailey said the canned-good delivery is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. and another round of soul-food plate deliveries will immediately follow.

She previously explained that the free soul food meals will be distributed throughout the community as a follow-up to a similar community-service project MMC youth undertook on Jan. 15 to commemorate the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Then, MMC members braved sub-freezing temperatures, ice, sleet and snow to deliver hot meals to local residents.

Volunteers used ATVs and large trucks to help clear paths for MMC members to distribute the soul food plates.

“And we will serve until all plates are gone. We’ll just go through the community and we will go into Union County — again, no certain area,” Bailey said. “We will do that to celebrate my sister’s memory, too.”

For more information about MMC, call Bailey at 870-310-0391.