For the past three years, children across the North Shore have woken up on Easter morning to find their yards filled with candy-stuffed eggs.
The Easter Bunny – with the help of Timmy’s Angels – fills eggs with candy and delivers them across the area. Volunteers – whom Timmy’s Angels cofounder Staci Sverker calls “our bunnies” – fan out across the North Shore late at night.
“We meet here in Salem and we go out at like 11 o’clock at night to all the surrounding towns. We go to Marblehead, to Swampscott, to Salem, and we hide the eggs where they tell us to hide them,” Sverker said.
Timmy’s Angels is preparing for its fourth annual “Egg My Yard” event, designed so parents don’t have to worry about hiding eggs themselves. Some volunteers even dress up as bunnies because people have security cameras the children may check on.
Last year, the group organized for 50 houses.
“I’m hoping we do a lot more than that because it really is so much fun,” Sverker said.
To sign up, requests are to be sent through Venmo to Sverker at SalemTimmysAngels. Deliveries cost $25 for 18 eggs, $40 for 36, and $55 for 54, with requests submitted via Venmo to @SalemTimmysAngels.
Timmy’s Angels is a nonprofit founded in the memory of Timmy Byrne, who died at age 11 after being struck by a car. Sverker said her mother, Sue Byrne, wanted to ensure Timmy would never be forgotten.” The completely-volunteer run group works in both Chicago and Salem.
“In 2015, my mother was worried that Timmy would be forgotten because he would have turned 30 in 2015,” Sverker said. “She said, ‘I really want to start something in his name.’ We wanted to give back to our community.”
Timmy’s Angels started with giving stuffed bears, as they called them “Timmy Bears.”
“We would send them all around the country, not just where we’re based out of,” Sverker said. “To this day, in Chicago, we have Timmy Bears that go every month to the Ronald McDonald House.”
Timmy’s Angels also fills backpacks for students in the North Shore. The group organizes a Christmas winter coat drive as well.
“It’s not a kid’s fault that their parents are in the situation like they are,” Sverker said. “They want to be like everybody else, so we get to help without letting them know it was donated. It’s really rewarding to see.”
