New York - Easter is a very special holiday for 6-year-old Nora Heddendorf. It's a day that she loves to dress up with fancy shoes and dresses and hunt with her family and friends for colorful eggs.
The coronavirus pandemic made her to adapt this year. She will complete her Easter outfit by adding a white mask, disposable gloves in blue and disinfectant wipes. And after hearing that her New Jersey town's annual egg hunt might be cancelled, she came up with the idea of the idea of a "rock hunt."
Article content Nora's hunt replaces eggs with brightly colored stones, and lets her neighbors stroll with them to hunt.
"I was sad it was going to be canceled due to the virus," the kindergartener said to Reuters in a telephone interview. "I would like to make people happy."
From the White House to small town parks, the pandemic has forced the removal of 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 finding ways to have fun during the holidays for the holidays, from an Oregon candy maker creating chocolate bunnies wearing face masks to a Texas church organizing an egg hunt that is virtual using the video game Minecraft.
Article content Nora and her mother started organizing their hunt in Medford Lakes a few weeks ago. She gathered dozens of DIY kits, each containing five rocks and four paint colors, instructions and all of it wrapped in plastic bags. Of course, she wore disposable gloves and spraying the contents with disinfectant.
She then left the kits outside her house to be picked up by people who want to participate. The young artist, Nora's Rocks requested her friends return the adorned rocks she gave to her for hiding.
"Thank you for helping Nora’s Rocks bring our community closer yet remain separate," she wrote in the instruction note she included with the kits.
Samantha Heddendorf, Samantha's mother and the president of an environmental cleanup firm which has been cleaning up buildings affected by the coronavirus crises She said that the hunt will begin on Good Friday and will continue through Easter Sunday with new batches of painted rocks being hidden each 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 doing their social distancing walks they could look for rocks, or what are known as Easter Eggs. They can have something to hunt for and grab them and, at the very least, an adorable smile to share the joy of Easter," Samantha Heddendorf said.
Central Point chocolatier Jeff Shepherd created a plan to keep his Lillie Belle Farms in Oregon from being shut down due to the coronavirus. He informed his Facebook followers that he'd make "Covid Bunnies" - milk and dark chocolate confections with white masks on them and white chocolate ones with blue face masks.
It was an incredible success. Shepherd was able to hire back seven of his full-time workers, sold 5,000 bunnies, and is currently scrambling to fulfill back orders.
Extremecraft
Article content Safe distancing to thwart spread of the virus is what prompted the Tate Springs Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, to make the switch to digital for its Easter Egg hunt, using Minecraft but disabling potentially frightening game elements like monsters.
Reverend Curtis James stated, "Our main goal in life is to share the gospel. We also want children to have fun celebrating Easter."
Back in New Jersey, Nora was excited that her idea was warmly embraced by so manypeople, with the town mayor stopping by to watch her fill the kits, and the local Lions Club inviting her for lunch "when this whole thing is finished."
Her most cherished "thanks" was gift-wrapped rolls toilet paper. This was one of the mainstays that people panic-shopped during the pandemic.
Nora said, "My mom smiled when toilet paper arrived." (Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York Additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien.)