BY TIMOTHY LAROCHE
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CLAREMONT — The line of children waiting at the Claremont Soup Kitchen let out a collective gasp on Thursday when Executive Director Cindy Stevens led the Easter Bunny into the dining room.
Even with grey skies and a slow drizzle outside, the soup kitchen provided warm respite during its annual Easter Dinner.
The event drew long lines as kids waited — some more patiently than others — to sit on the Easter Bunny’s lap.
Turnout for the dinner was on par with the soup kitchen’s other main holiday meals — Christmas and Thanksgiving, most notably.
“We have a capacity of 150 people,” Stevens said. “It has got to be close to it.”
Aside from a hot meal made by the kitchen’s volunteers, children received Easter Baskets filled with donated toys and other small gifts.
For Gage Perron, 6, who had spent the last week looking for a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure, the basket was a stroke of luck — containing an action figure modelled after Donatello, one of the series’ heroes.
Enthralled with the new toy, Perron could only manage a gleeful nod when asked if he enjoyed the figure before returning to his play.
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