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In the 15 years since Elias "Eli" Garrett died from Non-Hodgkin T-cell lymphoma in 2009, his father, Martin Garrett, has worked to bring joy to children hospitalized during the Easter holiday.
Now, the charity named in his son's honor is celebrating its 10th anniversary, having delivered more than 65,000 donated baskets to hospitals and pediatric centers across the country.
"We started delivering like 25-30 baskets a year right after Eli passed away with my aunt and a couple of co-workers, the same group of people who brought baskets to Eli when he was in the hospital," Garrett said.
When that initial, informal group dissolved in 2014, Garrett took it upon himself to carry on the basket-delivering mission and created the eponymous charity later that year.
The Easter baskets, which are sorted by recipients' ages and genders, include arts and crafts supplies, board games and other items designed to bring comfort to hospitalized kids.
Garrett is accepting donations until March 8, when he begins delivering them to the affected children.
"In 2015, I started a Facebook page for Easter for Eli with the hope of having 319 baskets -- that's 100% of UPMC Children's Hospital bed capacity," Garrett said.
That first year, Easter for Eli more than tripled that target, delivering more than 1,000 baskets.
"It was amazing being able to do that with community support," Garrett said.
With few exceptions, Easter for Eli has grown steadily in the decade since, now aiming for 10,000 baskets for the 2024 campaign.
One of those exceptions was the COVID-19 pandemic, when the charity was unable to donate baskets in person to hospitals. Instead, Garrett pivoted to donating baskets in "community hand-out" events to people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Despite the pandemic, the charity managed to distribute more than 1,250 baskets in 2021.
"We tried to give back to the community that always gave to us, always," Garrett said.
In 2022 and 2023, some hospitals still were not allowing outside donations to patients, so Easter for Eli is still in the process of "ramping back up" to full capacity, he said.
To circumvent this hurdle, Garrett began collecting gift cards in addition to the baskets, in order to provide a safer donation to recipient families.
"I'm trying to collect $10,000 in gift cards as well, for families traveling to and from (the hospital) and for the child that's in the hospital who may be able to buy with an Amazon card or a Google Play card," Garrett said.
In order to deliver all the baskets on time, Garrett spends three successive weekends in his 15-passenger van with a 24-foot trailer, covering eight states worth of drop-off locations himself.
The trips can include up to 16 hours of daily driving time.
"It's a lot of miles for smiles," Garrett said.
The other 13 states Easter for Eli covers are handled by local representatives, known affectionately as #TeamEfE.
According to Garrett, the goal is to eventually cover all 50 states, and hopefully even Canada.
The growth outward from the Altoona area started slowly, with individuals contacting Garrett via the charity's Facebook page.
"I thought the best way for you to help would be to help the children in your location, and I'll help make the contacts with the hospitals," Garrett said.
Easter for Eli now reaches 54 children's hospitals, 14 Ronald McDonald Houses and three Shriners Hospitals across the country.
Another key component of the process is local business participation. Some stores, like Sam's Club, have set aside space for Garrett to install donation-collection stations with baskets and packaging material.
"It's amazing to get these businesses involved ... they'll share on their social media and make a display and we can promote that as well," Garrett said.
According to Garrett, the success of Easter for Eli has been, in large part, due to the outpouring of support the charity receives every year.
"My biggest takeaway is that all this happens because of the community," Garrett said, "without the community's involvement in every single way ... this would never be possible; we're very thankful."
As a first-year partner of Easter for Eli, Stuckey GMC in Altoona has a basket-collection area at its Logan Boulevard dealership. They also accept donations at their Hollidaysburg and State College locations as well.
According to Marketing Director Karen Beauchamp, "They are something we have wanted to partner with for a while now -- and this year it just worked out for us."
Beauchamp said she finds the mission of Easter for Eli "admirable," and plans to renew Stuckey's partnership in 2025.
"It's really cool what they do, helping sick children have a little brightness while they're pursuing treatment," Beauchamp said.
Over the next 10 years, Garrett hopes to expand the organization's footprint to spread that brightness to more children.
"My goal is still to reach all 50 states," Garrett said.
Key to that vision is the new commercial storage facility currently under construction in Roaring Spring. The facility, which was funded by a posthumous grant by a local family, will be used to scale up basket production and improve logistics for the organization.
"We hope with the new storage facility we can start purchasing items in bulk, and in the future be able to work throughout the year so we don't have to jam all our basket collection ... into two or three months a year," Garrett said.
Due to the current supply chain structure of the basket donation process, Garrett is limited to how many hospitals he can include on his dropoff trips, since the total number of baskets is up in the air until the very last minute.
According to Garrett, the new facility will allow him to stockpile baskets in advance, which would enable him to guarantee specific amounts to more hospitals.
"Until I know what that year's income of baskets is going to be like, I can't promise other hospitals, and I can't start reaching out," Garrett said.
The 3,200 square foot space took five years to find an appropriately-zoned piece of property to occupy, but is now nearing completion.
"I'm thinking it's going to be done by Easter," Garrett said.
For more information on making a donation and a list of participating locations, visit easterforeli.com.
Mirror Staff Writer Conner Goetz is at 814-946-7535.