For newly diagnosed cancer patients in the Capital Region, organization Floyd Warriors is nothing short of a godsend. Launched in 2009 by Lisa Morahan, who herself had been diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer, Floyd Warriors’ mission is simple: to help cancer patients continue to take care of their homes and families despite their illness.
Now, with Easter coming up on April 1, Floyd Warriors will once again be sponsoring its Project Easter Bunny initiative, which looks to hand out hundreds of Easter baskets to families dealing with a cancer diagnosis. This year’s project is going the extra mile. “To collect enough toys and candy to fill 500 large Easter baskets, it takes a lot of people donating a lot of toys and candy,” says Morahan, President of Floyd Warriors (she’s also the Executive Director for the New York State Recreation and Park Society). “Thankfully, we have 20 drop sites around the Capital Region that make donating easy.”
Rallying volunteers under the Floyd Warriors’ motto—”Dinner is done…Dishes are clean…The kids are OK!”—Morahan has made many helpful cleaning and meal-delivery services available to local families in need. She was inspired to start Project Easter Bunny in ’09, when her own battle with breast cancer left her too weak to make an Easter basket for her son, Caden. She resolved that, once she recovered, she would make Easter baskets for her family and as many other families battling cancer as possible. Nine Easters later, Morahan is at the helm of a crew of over 40 volunteers who will spend four hours assembling an array of donated items into 500 Easter baskets. “All the goodies were rounded up and brought to our Homefront Hero, Quad Graphics in Saratoga,” Morahan tells me. “Once made, the baskets are delivered to area cancer support organizations and treatment centers including American Cancer Society/Hope Club and several oncology centers from Albany to Glens Falls. Nurses have the joy of passing these out the week of Easter to patients receiving chemotherapy and radiation, so they are spared waking up Easter morning without a basket to give.”
Morahan couldn’t be happier with how her initiative has turned out. “I’m very happy to say thousands of children have enjoyed beautiful baskets Easter morning, thanks to Project Easter Bunny,” she says. “My true hope is that it continues, however large or small in size, so that just one basket may reach a person in need.”
