![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Easter-Giveaway_04-450x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Volunteers from all walks of life helped with Saturday’s distribution of holiday food, Easter baskets and more at the North Wheeling Community Dream Center. (Photo by Eric Ayres)<\/p>\n
WHEELING \u2013 Unseasonably warm and sunny spring weather greeted people gathered outside the North Wheeling Community Dream Center on Saturday, when the Bethlehem Apostolic Temple and a team of volunteers helped make Easter a little brighter for hundreds of local families.<\/p>\n
A total of 307 people of all ages and all walks of life came through the doors of the Dream Center on Saturday morning, accepting a wide variety of food items for the holiday, along with Easter baskets and candy for children, clothes, books and more.<\/p>\n
Bishop Darrell Cummings, pastor of the Bethlehem Apostolic Temple, indicated that despite the huge effort, they can\u2019t help everyone in the community who needs it, but at least they try to help as many as they can.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to think it\u2019s important. I don\u2019t know that it\u2019s important to everybody, but to about 300 or so people, it\u2019s very important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Bethlehem Apostolic Temple started the Easter food distribution event 35 years ago, and it has been helping Ohio Valley residents and families in a similar fashion to the church\u2019s other holiday food giveaways \u2013 including those during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started the Easter event in 1991, and obviously since then it has grown,\u201d Cummings said.<\/p>\n
Over the years, the annual holiday food distribution has taken place at different locations, but in recent years, the North Wheeling Community Dream Center has been home to the event. On Saturday, teams of volunteers from the church, Wheeling Fire Department, Ohio County Sheriff\u2019s Office, local businesses and civic organizations, and others joined forces to help the cause.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are people who live in the community and who see what we\u2019re trying to do and believe in what we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d Cummings said of the volunteers.<\/p>\n
Plans for this year\u2019s Easter distribution had been hopping along without a major sponsor until The Health Plan announced just this past week that it would take on the task this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, it\u2019s an Easter miracle,\u201d Cummings said of The Health Plan\u2019s sponsorship. \u201cIt didn\u2019t cover everything, but it covered a significant amount. It\u2019s been a tremendous blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others also stepped up to help the cause, including local organizations as well as individual people in the community who took part in the \u201cStuff the Bus\u201d event, which collected donations for the Easter food distribution on Thursday outside of Riesbeck\u2019s in Elm Grove.<\/p>\n
Cummings noted that times are tough for many people. Following an especially cold winter with high heating bills, high prices for gasoline and groceries, and news about the struggling economy, the partial government shutdown and war overseas, everyone could use a break from the adversity, according to the bishop.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of these things make it a little more stressful for everyone,\u201d he said, noting that Easter is truly a time of rebirth. \u201cHopefully, this is a resurrection. Hopefully we\u2019re coming out of the war, hopefully prices will go back down. Until then, people have to eat, and we\u2019re hoping that we\u2019re showing the love of God, the love of community and that we care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those who came forward to accept food and other items during Saturday\u2019s Easter distribution expressed their thanks, and Cummings noted that it\u2019s sometimes difficult for people in need to come forward when times are tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody needs help sometimes,\u201d Cummings said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing to be ashamed of to need help. There\u2019s everything to be ashamed of to need help and refuse to receive it. Help is available.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Trump administration has revoked the green cards or U.S. visas of at least four Iranian …<\/p>\n