The Catasauqua Community Cares Program and Catasauqua Area School District school resource officers are collecting items to give out to young people in need as part of the Roughie Egg Hunt this year. Items will be put into Easter-themed bags with candy-filled eggs.

According to C3P member and Catasauqua High School teacher Leslie Estrada, the idea came from her boyfriend, who founded The Elevate Foundation, based in Bethlehem. He told her he volunteered to help collect feminine products and diapers for women in shelters.

This sparked the idea for Estrada to bring this sort of collection to Catasauqua. She contacted Officer Jenna Potak, CASD SRO, and they made a list of items to collect, such as personal hygiene products and coloring books and pencils for younger students.

Estrada noted she and Potak had been brainstorming more community project ideas following the success of the Giving Tree project during the winter holiday season.

According to Estrada, they didn’t do anything for Valentine’s Day because her high school Digital Media Club was doing a drive with the North Catasauqua Police Department. This left Easter as the next major holiday theme for the donation effort.

Estrada reported it is called the Roughie Egg Hunt to include everyone in the community, not just the families in need. She said she and Potak met with Catasauqua Mayor Barbara Schlegel in January to share their thoughts on this community drive. Estrada shared the list of local businesses that helped with the Giving Tree and noted they want to reach out to more.

“We also talked about meeting with Holy Trinity and Revolution churches, since they’re always involved in community projects,” Estrada said.

According to Estrada, a meeting took place Feb. 9 between Schlegel, representatives of both Holy Trinity Memorial Lutheran Church and Revolution Church and herself. Details were shared, and the church members were asked to provide the information with their congregations.

“Pastor Bobby Newman from the Presbyterian Church of Catasauqua reached out about helping, so we also gave him all of the details, and he said he’d share it with the church,” Estrada added.

So far, The Elevate Foundation has donated plastic eggs, and Estrada’s friend Thomas Kyle donated M&M’s toward this project. She reported they also reached out to Spark Orthodontics and Lehigh Dental for toothbrushes and toothpaste.

The CHS Digital Media Club held a food drive March 1-10 to collect food items for C3P.

There are a variety of items needed for the Roughie Egg Hunt, including hygiene products, school supplies and food items.

Hygiene products needed include toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, soap, body wash, deodorant, etc. School supplies include pencils, crayons, colored pencils, erasers, three-prong folders, notebooks, highlighters, pencil cases, etc.

Hygiene products, school supplies and candy should be dropped off at the Catasauqua Police Department, 90 Bridge St. Drop-off times are 8 a.m.-4 p.m. March 17 and 18 and 9 a.m.-noon March 20.

Food items needed include canned fruit, applesauce, macaroni and cheese, pasta, pudding cups, peanut butter crackers, cheese crackers, pretzels, cereal, soup, etc.

Food donations can be sent to Leslie Estrada, C3P donation, 201 N. 14th St., Catasauqua, 18032.

There will be a donation box inside the police station if you come in after hours; however, noon March 20 is the deadline to drop off items. This gives the items time to be quarantined before being shared with families.

Families will be able to pick up their festive baskets March 27 and 28.

There is an Amazon wish list for items at https://rb.gy/ut0pio. Items purchased from this list can be sent directly to the CASD administration building.

Monetary donations are also being accepted and should be sent to Jenna Potak, 2500 W. Bullshead Road, Northampton, 18067. Checks should be made payable to CASD-C3P with “food, hygiene products and gifts” written on the memo line.

“There is a lot of need in our community, especially with families losing their jobs due to COVID-19,” Estrada said.

Estrada is encouraging all Catasauqua community members to share photos of their COVID-19-safe Easter egg hunts with her via email at L.Estrada.Community@gmail.com, so she can share the photos on social media with hashtags #RoughieEggHunt and #gdtbarr. The second hashtag is popularly used within the school community and stands for “Great day to be a Rough Rider.”