The holiday season will be brighter for teenage patients at the Janet Weis Children’s Hospital in Danville, thanks to the efforts of the Marian Fillies girls’ basketball team.

The 14 players from Marian Catholic High School spent Thursday afternoon packing gifts as part of The Jared Box Project.

On Saturday, they delivered the boxes to the patients, most of whom are battling serious illnesses.

This is the second year the team has helped the hospital with Jared boxes, which are meant to entertain and put a smile on the faces of hospitalized children.

“The team and the school are always looking for community outreach and service projects,” said Sue Sernak Martinelli, president of the Marian Fillies Booster Club.

The Jared Box Project was a fit.

The charity started in a State College area school in 2002 to honor classmate Jared McMullen.

According to the organization, McMullen was battling an incurable tumor and carried a backpack full of games and toys to all appointments, which he’d share with other young patients.

The Marian girls, Sernak Martinelli said, packed boxes full of brightly-colored caps, adult coloring books, stuffed toys, journals, fuzzy socks, Rubix cubes, colored markers and more.

Each box included a handwritten note penned by the students.

Last year, she said, they packed 12 boxes. This year they had enough items for 18.

The items were purchased through the team’s fundraising efforts, which included a dine-and-donate event at Two Kings Pizzeria in Hometown and sales of lottery board tickets.

Earlier this year, the Fillies volunteered at a Halloween dance for special needs clients held in Weatherly, and participated in a Trunk-or-Treat event.