7th grader plays Easter Bunny for children in need

CAREY — Allison Lee may have visions of plastic eggs, chocolate bunnies and hand-knitted Peeps dancing through her head since completing a service project for the National Junior Honor Society. The 13-year-old Carey teen has spent the past two months seeking donations to make 15 Easter baskets for children in low income or foster families. "She did good," said Allison's mom, Kari Lee. "She smiled the whole time. I was very impressed by her." This was her National Junior Honor Society individual service project. Allison is also vice president of her chapter at OHDELA Online Public School in Ohio, where she has been a student for three years. She was inducted into the honor society in May 2025 and became vice president in September. Allison started working on her service project two months ago. "I wanted to make 15 Easter baskets for kids who are in need and to give them a really special Easter," she explained. "I didn't want it to be too big to where I couldn't do it. I wanted every kid to have a chance of actually getting one." She said nearly everything that went into the baskets was donated. That included 600 plastic eggs, bags of candy and egg fillers, activity books and a $40 donation from her math teacher. "There's still good in the world," she said. She also did chores around the house to earn money to buy items for the baskets. And her mom knitted a toy Peep for each child. "They're like Stuffies," Allison said. "They are like blue, purple, pink, yellow, fun Easter colors." She also color-coded the baskets — blue and yellow for boys, and purple and pink for girls. "I put chocolate bunnies in there. I used the money from doing chores around the house to buy the chocolate bunnies for each basket," she said. "There were eggs fillers in the baskets inside the eggs. Bubbles were donated. Activity books came from the Wyandot Recycling Center and also little fun packaged toys. It was really fun." The Carey Area Chamber of Commerce and the Wyandot County Chamber of Commerce along with multiple residents of Carey and Upper Sandusky helped with donations and spreading the word about her project. Her NJHS advisor praised the seventh grader. "She has one of the most unique service projects I have ever seen in all my years," Allison related. The baskets were delivered on Saturday. "It was supposed to be a surprise, but some (of the children) were looking through the windows and were getting in the doors, so I hope they don't realize what they were," said Allison. "But that's OK. They seemed happy when they saw them. I hope they like them." Individual service projects are required to take at least 20 to 25 hours. "This was definitely over because this whole thing took roughly about 20 hours," she said. One day she spent four hours just working on the baskets. "It was really fun. There were people after I delivered them, they were thanking me and saying how they liked the baskets," she said, "They were really happy and saying I did really good." At the end of the school year a ceremony will be held for NJHS, and she'll learn how many service hours the students had and what projects they did. Allison can remain a member of junior honor sociey until she's a freshman, "as long as you keep your grades up and you don't slack," she said. For now, she's planning another service project — she wants to do something similar by filling Christmas stockings. In addition to the independent projects, the students also do some group projects. In April, she plans to read to her brother's kindergarten class. "We also sent Christmas cards before we got off for Christmas break to St. Jude's Hospital. I sent them virtual, telling them to have a good New Year's, a good Christmas and how we hoped they got better," said Allison. "It's a lot of fun. I love being in NJHS."