E Bunny effort marks 25 years of charity in Vegas Valley

It’s been 25 years since the E Bunny made her first appearance, giving free Easter baskets to local children in need. The community effort has since seen thousands of baskets given away, and founder/coordinator Barbara Kenig said she couldn’t do it without her many volunteers.

The effort has its roots in Detroit. Kenig’s father, Alex Tauber, was known for taking turkeys to poor families or buying toys for underprivileged children at Christmas. Kenig put together a neighborhood talent show, held in her backyard, to raise money for the cause. It generated about $150. She was still in first grade.

Her father died of a heart attack while at work one day and just “never came home,” Kenig, a Summerlin resident, said. She was 11, but his efforts to help others had already made an indelible mark on her.

Kenig became a pediatric nurse. The upside: She helped save lives. The downside: The job tore at her heart any time a patient died. She quit after about five years to become a producer at WXYZ, Detroit’s ABC affiliate radio/television station. There, she met her husband, Howard, who was an on-air personality.

The Kenigs had a child, Jay. When he was 4, he asked her if she was the Easter Bunny. She said she was.

“So, if you’re the Easter bunny,” Jay continued, “who are those other guys at the mall?”

“They work for me,” she said.

Kenig enlisted help from her neighbors and Jay’s school to put together the first generation of E Bunny baskets. Back then, people were asked to purchase candy, wicker baskets and small toys to donate. Volunteers assembled the goodies into the baskets. The effort resulted in about 200 gift baskets.

When the family moved to Las Vegas in late 1999, the E Bunny came too. Kenig soon met the late Linda Lera-Randle El, who was an advocate for the homeless through Straight from the Streets.

“She took me into pockets where there was temporary housing,” Kenig said. “I saw families living out of their cars with their children. It was unbelievable how they lived. … The parents can’t put food on the table. How are they going to afford an Easter basket?”

In 2002, E Bunny gave out 800 baskets. After a story in View highlighted the effort a few years later, an anonymous man arranged for a large basket donation straight from WonderTreats Inc., which provides packaged Easter baskets to major retailers.

“We came home, and there was this big truck unloading pallets,” Kenig said. “They filled our entire 2½-car garage.”

The generous donation was a one-time thing. It did, however, drive home a point that sparked a change in how E Bunny operated: Instead of assembling baskets, which invariably got knocked over, became disarrayed and had to be repackaged, Kenig and her volunteers asked the community to donate pre-packaged baskets bought at retail stores.

It takes up to 100 volunteers for the effort. They, Kenig said, are the ones who deserve the recognition.

Traci Anderlik and her husband, Bob, operate the Nevada Foreign Trade Zone near McCarran International Airport. They donate warehouse space to E Bunny.

“It’s a good cause, and we have the space to do it, even though, believe me, sometimes it gets really crowded,” Traci said. “One year, we had 1,200 to 1,500 baskets. We had baskets everywhere.”

Groups that receive baskets include Safe Nest, the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, area children’s hospitals, Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation of Nevada, the Foundation for Positively Kids, Baby’s Bounty, HELP of Southern Nevada, Casa de Luz and the Clark County School District.

In 2013, E Bunny was honored by the Leif Erikson Hometown Heroes Award. The honor also got Kenig on the TV show “Hometown Heroes” on KCLV Channel 2, which resulted in more E Bunny volunteers and donations.

Kenig is 68 and said she is ready to accept new donations and rally her volunteers once more.

“It’ll probably go on until I drop,” she said.

For more information about E Bunny or to donate, visit facebook.com/EBunnyLV or contact Kenig at ebunnylv@gmail.com or 702-498-9808.

Contact Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.