BY CAMI KOONS
With coronavirus regulations and stay-at-home orders, churches switch to online services and families refrain from coming together. However, governors across the country have promised the Easter bunny is an essential worker.
To try to still find joy in the holiday, Eudora residents are finding new ways to celebrate and feel connected this Easter.
Michelle Topil, founder of the Eudora Boredom Busters, encouraged group members to hang Easter eggs in their windows this week for people to spot on their walks. Topil said she wanted to do this to keep people from handing out Easter eggs, as experts warn the virus can live on plastic for several days.
Topil said she had to comment on some of the Facebook posts about handing out eggs.
“I hate to be a ‘Debbie Downer,’ but I had to comment on that,” Topil said. “No contact, just keep it in the windows.”
Topil said she and her girls used watercolors on coffee filters to make their window eggs. Topil said she also used chalk to make a big egg in her driveway. She still plans to do an egg hunt with her girls in the backyard and celebrate Easter as normal, just with fewer people in the house.
Jamie Grant said her two children and the three children she babysits decorated some eggs to hang on the front door along with a wreath she made.
After they decorated the eggs on Monday, Grant said they went for a walk to see all the other eggs in the neighborhood. Grant said she and the children have participated in most of the window hunts organized by the Boredom Busters.
“It’s really fun for them to go look in other peoples windows for eggs or whatever it is that week,” Grant said.
Grant said her plans for Easter are pretty similar to a normal year. Her Easter baskets have already been made, and she plans to do an indoor Easter hunt for her children. Grant said it will be weird not having all of the family together this year, but thinks they will do a video call on Sunday.
“I’ve tried really hard since this happened to keep things normal for the kids,” Grant said.
While egg hunts and bunnies are one way to celebrate Easter, Belinda Rehmer said she plans to focus more on her faith and praise. Rehmer said she is excited to participate in a collective singing of “Amazing Grace” outside at 10 a.m. Sunday.
The idea was posted to the Boredom Busters page several weeks ago, and those participating will stand outside of their homes to sing together. Rehmer said she thinks the display will go unnoticed by most, but she believes God will be listening.
“It doesn’t matter how you sound, it’s joyful noises that he hears,” Rehmer said.
Rehmer said she also participated in a prayer drive Thursday night with the Eudora Baptist Church. The church set up colored crosses throughout town with instructions to pray for different groups affected by and working to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
For example, the purple cross at the Eudora Public Safety Building was dedicated to first responders and the orange cross at Medicalodges prompted prayers for the elderly.
While the prayer drive crosses are not directly related to Easter, Rehmer said she hopes people will participate during this holiday and afterwards. The crosses went up Thursday night and will remain as long as the church feels these prayers are needed.
“It’s something [the church] really want[s] the community to do,” Rehmer said. “It’s just another way of reminding us who is affected.”
Mary Beem also participated in the prayer drive on Thursday night and said she stopped at each cross to pray for protection over the community. Beem said not going to church on Easter Sunday will be different, but she’s happy to have a livestream of the service. She said it will be even stranger to not be with her family on the holiday.
“They’re trying to stay away from me,” Beem said. “But that’s our tradition, we’re family.”
She said her children, who have families of their own, have been dropping off groceries for her in the garage. She said they plan to do a similar trade on Easter Sunday. She will cook and leave some of it in the garage for her daughter to pick up and her daughter will leave some food in the garage for Beem.
Beem said she also wants to hide some Easter eggs in her backyard for her grandchildren to find while she watches from inside. She said it’s going to be different, but the circumstances should not detract from the holiday.
“No matter what the situation is … I think we need to not take our focus off of what Easter is about,” Beem said.
Reach reporter Cami Koons at eudoratimes@gmail.com.
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