Vanessa Winchester, left, a day activities coordinator at Opportunity Village, and Barbara Kenig, founder of E Bunny, pose with donated Easter baskets at Opportunity Village’s Billy Walters campus. E Bunny collects Easter baskets for homeless youths and needy families in the valley.
Sunday, March 22, 2015 | 2 a.m.
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As Easter approaches, shelves at supermarkets and big-box stores brim with plastic eggs, chocolate bunnies, stuffed animals and other treats.
They are luxuries thousands of Las Vegas children living in poverty might never enjoy, if not for the efforts of one local woman.
For the past 25 years, E Bunny, the brainchild of Barbara Kenig, has partnered with nonprofit groups and volunteers to deliver free Easter baskets filled with chocolate eggs and school supplies to homeless youths and families in need.
Kenig first launched the project in Detroit with her son and husband. It since has expanded into a communitywide effort in Las Vegas, with help from 100 core volunteers and more than a dozen nonprofits that come together each spring to collect and distribute thousands of baskets to the valley’s most poverty-stricken communities.
“Spring is a time of hope and new life, regardless of your religion,” said Kenig, who is Jewish. “I wanted to make it a bright spot for kids who have never had the experience of Easter and whose families struggle just to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.”
Community outreach has been part of Kenig’s life since her childhood in Detroit. Her father delivered turkeys and toys to underprivileged families during the holidays. In first grade, Kenig organized a backyard talent show to raise money for the cause.
That ethos led her to a career as a pediatric nurse, but she left the profession to work in media production after patient deaths became too difficult for her to bear.
Still, she continued to think of ways to give back.
When her son was a toddler, he asked if her nickname “Bunny” meant that she was the Easter Bunny.
“I thought for a minute and said, ‘Why yes, I am!’” Kenig recalled. “With so many kids in need out there, I thought, why not go out there and deliver some baskets?”
A neighborhood effort assembling a few baskets in her family’s garage grew to an assembly line of several hundred baskets by the time the family relocated to Las Vegas in 1999. Here, Kenig met Linda Lera-Randle El, a homeless advocate who launched Straight from the Streets, who helped her connect with families living in extreme poverty.
As word spread about the project, a generous donation of ready-made baskets inspired Kenig to change E Bunny’s goal from collecting items for homemade baskets to soliciting pre-packaged baskets. The switch allowed E Bunny to up its deliveries to the thousands.
Today, E Bunny is a collaboration of 16 nonprofit and community organizations including Opportunity Village, Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation of Nevada, Clark County School District, Las Vegas Rescue Mission and Casa de Luz. One hundred core volunteers walk the streets Easter weekend to deliver baskets to the homeless. In 2013, E Bunny’s efforts earned the project the Leif Erikson Hometown Heroes Award.
As Easter approaches, Kenig said she spends six to eight hours a day packaging, coordinating and collecting baskets. She’ll take just a couple of months off after Easter before getting started on next year’s effort.
“It’s heartbreaking to know those numbers of homeless youth in Las Vegas exist, but it makes you more driven to do what you can, and it takes a life of its own,” Kenig said. “I don’t think we’ll ever stop.”
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