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Hampden woman's Easter baskets for children at Ronald McDonald House make egg-cellent gifts

Shirley Hebert has been making Easter baskets for the young guests at the Ronald McDonald House in Springfield for nine years now.

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Shirley Hebert, of Hampden, passes out some of the 19 Easter baskets she made to children at the Ronald McDonald House. Here, she is giving a basket to Joanna Bujosa of the Dominiican Republic. This was her 9th year makin baskets.

HAMPDEN – When Shirley Hebert makes Easter baskets, she thinks big. No skimping for her. “Overflowing” is how she describes them.

She used to make them for her own four children. Now she makes them for the children at Ronald McDonald House in Springfield.

Ronald McDonald House is a home-like charitable institution where kids undergoing serious medical treatment can stay with their families at little or no cost.

Hebert has been making Easter baskets for the young guests there for nine years now. This year she made 19 baskets.

“She does a phenomenal job,” said Jennifer Putnam, executive director of the Ronald McDonald House.

Hebert also cooks dinner once a month at the McDonald House – shepherd’s pie, meat loaf, grilled hamburgers in summer. “She’s a terrific cook,” said her daughter, Tracey.

She gets help from an army of friends who have been volunteering with her from the beginning. They call themselves “Sociable Singles.”

They have cooked for as many as 48 people at the McDonald House.

The baskets, however, are Hebert’s project. “I do it all myself – my own time, my own money,” she said.

Hebert, 74, grew up in Springfield, where she celebrated her Easters at St. Michael’s Cathedral, and moved to Hampden with her late husband, Emile L. Hebert, 45 years ago. She has happy memories of Easter – colored eggs, straw hats, white gloves, patent leather shoes.

She telephones the McDonald House around Easter time to find out the ages of the children and how many are boys, how many girls.

She shops all year for crayons, jump ropes, toothbrushes, tic-tac-toe games, sunglasses, little toy bunnies, paint sets, anything that strikes her fancy.

Not much candy, though. “With the children being ill, you don’t know if their diet will let them have it,” she said.

She buys identical baskets, fills them with appropriate gifts, wraps them in plastic bags “with bunnies and chickies on them,” and adds ribbons – blue for boys, pink for girls, sometimes white or yellow. It takes her a week to put the baskets together.

The kids who get them range in age from newborns to teen-agers. Some come from far away– Trinidad, Puerto Rico. Some don’t speak English. Some, said Hebert, don’t have hands.

The families are very grateful, she said – “the most thankful people you could ever meet.”

For her part, Hebert is thankful that she can make them feel at home during a stressful time.

“She has always been this way,” said Tracey. “She completely derives pleasure from doing for others.”




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