Conway Parks & Recreation Department
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News: Mobile Easter Egg Hunt 2020

Date Published Author
4/14/2020 12:00:00 AM  Robby Moody 

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Conway- With most of New Hampshire shutdown due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, like everyone else, the Conway Parks & Recreation Department had to cancel their annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday April 11th, or did they?
Director John Eastman along with his Assistant Director Michael Lane, Teen Center Coordinator Todd Gallagher, Programmer Robby Moddy & Administrative Assistant Lynore Wagner got together and came up with a plan. If the kids couldn’t come to the Conway Rec for the hunt, then staff would bring the hunt to the kids. During a three-week period, staff at the Conway Rec went through registration forms, looked at school bus routes and came up with a tentative route to bring the Easter Bunny to the kids of Conway & Albany. During this planning stage it became apparent that the area of Conway & Albany was just too big for the Easter Bunny.  Staff reached out to the Easter Bunny’s cousin “Ernest” and he agreed to come to Conway as well and help the Easter Bunny deliver eggs.
The week leading up to the hunt, staff at the Conway Rec ran a PR campaign to let kids know the hunt was coming to them. This included videos on five things you can do with an egg and also a video of the Easter Bunny taking the Conway Rec’s eggs from the Conway Rec Building. The video included staff discovering the eggs were missing and the Conway Police Department investigating (you can see the videos on the Conway Parks & Recreation Departments Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages).
Starting Thursday, the Town of Conway Facebook page announced news of the hunt. Along with the Conway Rec facebook page, there were over 200 shares on the upcoming event. Staff received over 150 requests for a visit from the Easter Bunny via social media and e-mail.
Beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning, 4 Conway Rec vehicles left their home in Conway Village headed in two directions. Staff, along with the Easter Bunny & Ernest spent the next seven hours visiting family’s houses, throwing eggs & candy on their front lawns, taking photos from a distance. In addition, the Easter Bunny and Ernest interacted with children and parents from a safe distance. Ernest is quite the dancer and he had kids dancing on their front lawns all over Conway (video can be seen once again on the Conway Rec Facebook, Twitter & Instagram Page).
In total, the staff at the Conway Parks & Recreation Department delivered 3,000 eggs plus candy to over 250 homes in Conway & Albany. In these difficult times, it was amazing to bring joy to so many families!