NEW ORLEANS- An Easter story that’s sure to pull on your heartstrings… fraternity brothers giving back to children spending Easter weekend in hospitals across New Orleans.
WGNO’s Adam Bowles takes us to Tulane Lakeside Hospital for Women and Children in Metairie.
When you think of Easter you may think of the goodies, and treats waiting for you in a basket. But for one New Orleans brotherhood, they are thinking of others. Charles Allen is just one of the brothers of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity who is on a mission to help those who cant have a normal Easter.
“When we get to the hospitals and the transitional housing shelters the faces and the eyes just light up, people are really touched, and we are humbled in doing this service here,” Allen says.
These guys in purple and gold have been doing this for over 20 years….delivering Easter baskets and goodies to children and struggling families. Chuck Brown, the Chairman of the fraternity, says this 20 year old mission is needed.
“Every child…we don’t miss one child in the city of New Orleans who is in a hospital, they’re serviced, and every child who is in a known transitional housing shelter here is serviced today,” Brown says.
This is service they say doesn’t feel like a service…even as they pack up and go to hospitals like Tulane Lakeside, dressing up in the appropriate attire, walking into a patients room and seeing childrens’ faces that makes their mission worth it. That is why Charles and Omega Psi-Phi delivers Easter baskets year after year to children.
”That was moving, moving. They were excited about our offering and excited about the bonding today, you know that’s what this is all about…uplifting spirits…every step of the way,” Allen says.
For a place where a child could feel a little lonely, Omega Psi Phi’s mission to spread joy this Easter was accomplished. The fraternity brothers also visited children at Ochsner and donated Easter baskets to the Salvation Army.