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Laughter and excitement fluttered down the halls of Head Start Thursday as the Faith Project visited with the students.

Making the most of their time, the young ladies of the Faith Project spent the spring break holiday working on a gift project for these students.

Head Start is a part of the Butler County Educational Service Center.

This preschool program exists for children ages 3-5 and currently enrolls 100 students.

This past week the Faith Project, helmed by cousins and “sisters in Christ,” Charlotte Kate Anderson, Lillian Faith Baker and Anna Grace Baker, delivered backpacks full of blankets, books, and toiletries to all of the students in this program.

“The community has helped so much! But, we want to add more children,” said Staci Anderson.

The backpacks were very special gifts. “I was working a booth in McKenzie, when a lady asked how many bags I needed,” said Anderson. Sandra Tolbert and her friends were the ladies that made 100 bags by hand for the project. Anderson added, “They stayed up all night for a couple of nights and sewed all of the bags.”

The items that went inside the bags were donated from various churches and businesses in the area.

The Faith Project is a non-profit organization in Butler County, seeking to make a difference in the county and surrounding areas. Carol Baker said, “We are going into our fourth year. When Faith was five she was on a field trip and asked Santa for blankets for the homeless. In these three years, we have touched over 1400 lives.”

This past year, the Faith Project set out goals to reach the children of Bright Beginnings and Head Start. Anderson said, “We wanted to add Head Start to the mission—it was the girls’ goal. We hope to go into Lowndes County once we reach all of those in Butler County.”