Operation ‘Jack’ Rabbit to benefit Rhode Island children in need

April 17, 2019 11:02 pm

By: Brittany Comak

Twitter: @comaknews

Email: bcomak@abc6.com

NEWPORT, R.I. (WLNE) – Jack Ryan has been helping the Easter bunny since he was about four-years-old.

Now in 8th grade – he says it makes him feel good to be able to give back.

Come Sunday, hundreds of pails of candy and Easter eggs will be in the hands of children who may have otherwise not had any at all.

“Everyone says, ‘When’s it going to stop?’ And I said, ‘Well how can you stop?’, said Jack’s mom Pamela D’Orsi. “Some kids expect it, and then there’s always new kids that come along that need it.”

D’orsi and her son have been putting together the Easter treats for the last 11 years. The project is named for Jack himself.

“You’ve got to give back what you get…help out when others are in need,” said Jack.

Jack and his classmates assembled about 90 pails on Wednesday that will go to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Newport.

But they’ve been hard at work for the past six weeks, along with family and friends, creating these pails for about 800 kids.

“You need a whole team. You can’t just do it by yourself,” said Jack. “Everybody has to chip in, everybody has to help out. And without everybody, it couldn’t have been done.”

D’Orsi says it’s not only beneficial for the recipients, but for her son and his peers as well, who get to see how fortunate they are to be able to do this.

“It just teaches them that it feels better to give back than it does to receive,” said D’Orsi.

“It makes me feel a little better as a person and just knowing that I helped out, and put a few smiles on some kids faces – it’s pretty nice,” said Jack.