As the world gets used to what it means to practice social distancing, new initiatives have started to emerge in various communities to try and make life as fun as possible for children and their families living in isolation. In the Town of Brome Lake, one such activity is the “Social Distancing Easter Egg Hunt.”
The initiative involves having families get creative with Easter crafts to keep them busy while being stuck at home, and encourages social distancing walks to see what other families around the neighborhood have done. Town of Brome Lake resident Laura Carpentier McConnell thought this was a perfect idea for her community and she is encouraging other families to get involved.
“It started with another Facebook page called Easter Egg Hunt 2020 With Social Distancing,” explained Carpentier McConnell. “I think there is over 100,000 people on the page right now but I thought it would be nice to do it more local so that we can have the kids around here do it and see what they did.”
The social distancing Easter egg hunt of Knowlton is all about creativity, having fun, and promoting social distancing. “People are doing rainbows or any kind of picture in their windows so that people can see them from the road,” said Carpentier McConnell. “People can walk around and look at other people’s windows to see what they did.”
While referred to as the ‘Easter egg hunt,’ the hunt actually involves no Easter eggs at all. Families that did an Easter craft are encouraged to post what they did on the Facebook event page for a chance to win a prize, but the hunt in this case refers to what families spotted and came across in other people’s windows while out and about.
“They can post pictures of what they found even if they didn’t do something and they can still win a prize.”
Various establishments in the village have hopped on board with the initiative providing a variety of prizes to be rewarded to the names that will be drawn sometime after Easter. “The two local pharmacies gave us chocolate, Virgin Hill gave us marshmallows and chocolate, the new brewery is giving us certificates or shirts, Graphix Toro is making t-shirts with rainbows on them, Tara Moar has been pitching in, I’m doing rainbow weaving for them too, and Beverly Barnes said she will make us some nice mugs for the kids.”
With many families limiting their time outside of them home, Carpentier McConnell wanted to give them something to look forward to this Easter.
“It’s really about the kids and to give them something to do and to look forward to for Easter,” emphasized Carpentier McConnell. “They won’t be able to do Easter hunts at their grandparents but they can still do a little Easter egg hunt like this if they want to. They don’t really have anything to do right now.”
If you want to join on the Social Distancing Easter Egg Hunt of Knowlton, Carpentier McConnell said it’s quite simple. Get out your paint, your craft materials, anything else you may need, and get creative. Post what you did, or what you found while going on a social distancing walk, to https://www.facebook.com/events/207593993640449/ for a chance to win a prize. Here, you will also be kept up to date as to when the event is over and when the names will be drawn.
A “social distancing” Easter egg hunt
By Taylor McClure, Special to Brome County News
