In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Moniteau County Library has started a social distancing Easter egg hunt to help patrons celebrate Easter while practicing the safety recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Heidi Porter, library programming and media specialist, released a virtual story-time April 1 reading "The Good Egg" and "The Great Eggscape," both by Jory John. She then challenged viewers to create and decorate an Easter egg. Porter has provided egg templates on the library's Facebook page, where viewers are welcome to create their eggs any way they'd like.
"I had seen several of these types of 'hunts' on some of my Facebook friends pages that live in different areas, and I thought that would be a neat thing to get started here," Porter said. "I also realized that this is just a stressful and chaotic time for everyone right now, and I thought that this would be a fun way to spread a little cheer during this time. So I decided that I would do a virtual story-time and challenge people with this egg hunt."
Participation is easy - decorate your egg and place it somewhere where others can view it from a safe distance, and then spend some time driving or walking around town looking for eggs others have placed in their windows or doors. Several businesses are participating as well, such as O'Reilly, Capital Automatic, the Post Office, Elevate Fitness Studio, Commerce Bank and Grind.
The Easter egg hunt is available at your convenience and is expected to continue up to or a little after Easter, Porter said. Porter said she's had several people send in photos so far, which she uploads to a photo album to encourage people to go and find the eggs that are being sent in.
"I honestly thought that if I could just get a few people to participate, then it would be a neat thing, but to see the community come together in something as simple as creating and placing an Easter egg in their window to give others a chance to have something fun to do during these times is just really heartwarming," Porter said.