LOUISVILLE, Ky. — On Easter Sunday, the Love Transformation Project (LTP) delivered 630 Easter baskets to children in neighborhoods it serves. LTP is a Christian street ministry that does outreach to the homeless and to kids who live in high crime areas.

“Today it’s just about smiles and making some kids happy today,” said LTP’s Founder Calvin Wooten. 

On Sunday afternoon, more than a dozen volunteers met at Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in Louisville, where LTP rents space, to load up 630 Easter baskets in an ambulance, SUV, and trailer. 

Volunteers with Love Transformation Project on Easter Sunday assemble the last Easter baskets before delivering them to children in Louisville.

“Anything can be transformed with love,” said LTP’s Outreach Resource Director Jennifer Clements about how the children receiving the baskets will benefit from the outreach. “And it’s just about loving these kids, and loving their parents, and loving the community.”

Clements organized this year’s Children’s Easter Basket Outreach by LTP. This is the third year LTP has given out Easter baskets, but this is the second year the ministry has gone mobile, meaning they drive the Easter baskets to neighborhoods to deliver. Volunteers gave out the baskets by knocking on doors, handing them out to cars driving by, or going up to residents walking by. 

“And just the happiness and joy that you see on these kids faces, you know, this could be the highlight of not just their day, but this could be the highlight of their week, you know, and they may not even have ever gotten an Easter basket before. So that’s pretty exciting,” Clements told Spectrum News 1.

This year, LTP went to the neighborhood surrounding Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in Louisville’s South End and to neighborhoods in West Louisville, such as California and Portland.

Wooten said giving out the Easter baskets is about reaching out on a positive note to the families and their kids.

“And just try to be the change that we all want,” Wooten said.

The Easter baskets assembled were tailored for infants up to 18-years-old.

Wooten said all items were donated from the community after posting on LTP’s Facebook page. However, Wooten said they had to post a second time on Facebook asking for donated items to assemble more Easter baskets after a few hundred baskets were stolen earlier in the week.

“And then we recouped, you know, we found out who did it, and then we was able to recuperate all the ones that were stolen, as well, so we’re double blessed today,” Wooten said.

330 baskets for boys and 300 baskets for girls were boxed up and delivered by volunteers.

Double blessed he said because LTP only expected to hand out 300 baskets this Easter Sunday, but the returned baskets and extra donations made up 330 baskets assembled for boys and 300 made for girls. 

Volunteers helped assemble the baskets on Tuesday and then deliver them on Sunday. 

“It’s awesome. This is one of the best things I’ve ever done,” volunteer Morgan Brodt told Spectrum News 1 on Sunday after delivering an Easter basket.

Ten-year-old Ayreonna Golden found Scooby-Doo pencils, scissors, a toothbrush, and candy, among other items, in the Easter basket she was given Sunday.

“I feel grateful,” she told Spectrum News 1.

The purpose was to deliver joy on Easter Sunday to children like Golden and to deliver joy to parents like her mom, Shawann Douglas.

“You see how excited they was when they see Easter baskets,” Douglas laughed. “But they was happy so that made me happy.”