The early childhood students who attend the pre-kindergarten classes in the temporary classrooms inside Bruins Stadium in North Hudson Braddock Park were anticipating an Easter egg hunt and a visit from the Easter Bunny for weeks prior to the scheduled event.
The eager tots took the time to decorate their classrooms with colorful rabbits made out of paper plates, colored chicks, and eggs, and even made baskets of plastic cups and pipe cleaners.
Needless to say, these kids were ready. Nothing was about to get in their way to collect candy, prizes and meet the most popular rabbit this side of Bugs.
Well, almost nothing. A severe rain shower early Monday morning postponed the event two days until Wednesday.
However, when the heaviest rain of 2002 fell on the local surroundings late Tuesday night, saturating Bruins Stadium, it appeared as if the kids were going to be out of luck.
Of course, the kids didn’t know anything about the postponements and cancellations. They just kept hoping and waiting.
“With the weather, we just kept playing it by ear,” said Pre-k teacher Allison Chickey – who definitely has an appropriate surname for this time of year. “They wrote notes to have the Easter Bunny come. So we kept it from the kids until we knew for sure what was going to happen.”
The Easter egg hunt was just moved indoors. A little improvisation never hurt anyone. When Chickey found out that the hunt was being shifted inside, she arrived early Wednesday morning to make sure she could strategically hide several eggs for both of her classes, the morning and the afternoon sessions, throughout the classroom. “I hid them pretty good,” Chickey said. “I didn’t want them to know where they were.”
There was only one problem.
“I don’t remember where I hid them all,” Chickey said. “I should have written it down.”
The students were quickly excited when their furry guest made his way through the door. Five-year-old Melissa Escobar didn’t want to leave the Easter Bunny’s side.
“I’m so happy to see the Easter Bunny,” Escobar said. “I was waiting all day for him to come.”
Escobar was then the most inquisitive of the students, wanting to know if the Easter Bunny was an actual rabbit or whether it was a costume. The little girl also asked if the Easter Bunny could stay with her for the entire day.
Unfortunately, the popular visitor had to make appearances in the 16 other classrooms at the site. Other little boys and girls wanted to share their eggs and their joy with the Easter Bunny.
The kids had a blast searching for the multi-colored plastic eggs that were filled with little prizes, candy and goodies, like erasers, stickers and such.
“Look what I got,” said one little boy. “An egg.” He didn’t realize he was supposed to open it to find a prize.
Five-year-old Sophia Gonzalez collected five eggs. She wanted candy. She wasn’t interested in prizes.
“Just candy,” she said. “And the Easter Bunny.”
“It was important to have something like this for the children,” Chickey said. “A lot of them don’t get the chance to celebrate the holidays, so we’re able to do something special for them. We like to do fun things for them, because, after all, they’re kids. It’s fun for them, but it’s also fun for us.”
Not a soul complained that the event took place indoors.
“It turned out to be better indoors,” Chickey said. “This way, we didn’t feel rushed.”
That’s because Chickey’s class needed all day to find the eggs she hid. Somewhere.