Notes

Coronavirus Causes Americans To Look For Easter Fun At At A Minimum 6 Feet Apart

Article content NEW YORK Easter is a holiday that is special for 6-year-old Nora Heddendorf. It's a day that she loves to dress up in fancy shoes and dresses and hunt with her family and friends to find colorful eggs.



The coronavirus pandemic forced her to adjust this year. She'll finish her Easter outfit by adding a white paper mask and disposable gloves in blue and disinfectant wipes. After learning that her New Jersey town's annual egg hunt could be cancelled and she came up with the idea of an "rock hunt."



The content of the article replaces eggs with colorful stones and allows her neighbors to walk with her to hunt.



"I was disappointed that it was cancelled because of the virus," the kindergartener said to Reuters in a telephone interview. "I want to make people happy."



From the White House to small town parks The pandemic has prompted the elimination of the traditional Easter egg hunts and "rolls" across the United States, closed churches and scotched plans for Easter meals with extended families.



But many Americans are still looking for ways to have fun during the holidays for the holidays, from an Oregon candy maker making chocolate bunnies that wear masks to an Texas church organizing a virtual egg hunt using the video game Minecraft.



Article content Nora and her mom began organizing their hunt in Medford Lakes a few weeks ago. She assembled dozens DIY kits, each containing five rocks, four paint colors, and instructions and all of it wrapped in plastic bags. Of course, she was wearing disposable gloves and spraying the contents with disinfectant.
Just Another Wordpress Site


She then left the kits outside her home for pick-up by people who want to take part. The young artist, Nora's Rocks asked her friends to return the rocks she had left to her for hiding.



"Thank you for helping Nora's Rocks bring our town closer while remaining separated," said the instruction letter she included in the kits.



Samantha Heddendorf, Samantha's mother and the president of an environmental cleanup firm which has been cleaning up the buildings affected by the coronavirus crisis She said that the hunt will begin on Good Friday and run through Easter Sunday with new batches of painted rocks being hidden every day.



Article content The goal of this project is to install 500 stones "eggs" in every corner of the 1 mile (2.6 km) town.



"When people are taking their social distancing walks, they can look for rocks - or so-called Easter Eggs. They could have something to look for and then grab them and, at the very least, a smile to celebrate Easter with," Samantha Heddendorf said.



In Central Point, Oregon, chocolatier Jeff Shepherd had a brainstorm to save his Lillie Belle Farms from shutdown in the wake of the coronavirus. He told his Facebook followers that he was going to create "Covid Bunnies" that are dark and milk chocolate confections with white face masks and white chocolate ones with blue face masks.



It was a huge success. Shepherd was able to bring back the full-time staff of seven he had laid off and has sold 5,000 bunnies, and is in a frenzy with back orders. He is now limit purchases to six per customer.



Article content Secure distancing to prevent spread of the virus is what prompted the Tate Springs Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, to move to digital with its Easter Egg hunt, using Minecraft but disabling potentially frightening game elements such as monsters.



"Our primary goal is to preach the gospel, but we also want the kids to still enjoy Easter," said Reverend Curtis James.



Back in New Jersey, Nora was thrilled that her idea was enthusiastically welcomed by a wide range of people, including the town's mayor who stopped by to witness her stuffing the kits and the local Lions Club inviting her for lunch "when this whole thing is finished."



Her most cherished "thanks" was wrapped in gift-wrapped rolls of toilet paper. This was one of the staples that people panic-shopped for during the pandemic.



Nora said, "My mom smiled when toilet paper came in." (Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York Additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)


Here's my website: https://f-email.org/