Pierre Syben, left, hands over the massive haul of chocolate Easter eggs to Salvation Army food bank coordinator Billie Brown.
One person has made a difference for young children in Cambridge, organising a collection of hundreds of Easter eggs for those who otherwise may not have received a chocolate egg this year.
The kicker is, that person is 94 years old.
Pierre Syben organised the collection of over 200 packets of Easter eggs on his own accord, after finding out that some young children in Cambridge had never had an Easter egg.
“I thought, well, thinking about it doesn’t help the children does it? And so I started talking to my neighbours, talking to a few people here at St Kilda, and started doing things.”
Other residents and staff from the Bupa St Kilda village pitched in, but Pierre did a lot of the work himself, purchasing hundreds of Easter eggs from The Warehouse in Cambridge.
Shaun Baker, head of the Cambridge Salvation Army which collected the eggs this week, said the donation would make a lot of kids very happy.
“That’s just what I wanted,” Pierre said.
Debra Brown, village assistant at St Kilda, explained how Pierre had been saddened to learn that some kids just don’t get chocolate eggs on Easter weekend.
“This really saddened him, he wanted to bring a smile to these families, especially the children,” she explained. “So he came up with the initiative to collect and distribute Easter eggs for families in need around Cambridge. He has purchased a significant amount of chocolate eggs himself, and our residents here at St Kilda have also supplied items.”
Debra said people were quite taken back that a person at 94 years of age had organised such a thing.
Sharp as a tack, Pierre simply shrugged and said, “94 years old doesn’t mean anything to the children, it has nothing to do with it. And I’ve had a lot of help too.”
The Salvation Army, Cambridge’s only food bank, began distributing the eggs this week to families in need. The official day for children to hunt for Easter eggs is on Sunday, April 21.
