Published April 9, 2020
By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — It wasn’t easy, but the Transcript finally caught up with the Easter Bunny on Monday afternoon while he was hopping around town, keeping in tip-tip shape for his upcoming duties this Saturday night and Sunday morning.
The Easter Bunny was still pumped on Monday because he had so much fun traveling to nearly every neighborhood in town throughout the weekend, visiting all the great girls and boys who live here.
The enthusiasm and love demonstrated by each child as he visited street after street was such a thrill for the Easter Bunny. There were so many beautiful chalk drawings to admire and friendly waves and squeals of delight to enjoy. When you shouted “I Love You Easter Bunny!” it melted his heart. He loved your drawings and the thank you cards too, especially the poster signed by “Delaney!”
Oh, and he said all of the Stuffed Animal Safari displays were very clever too, so he knows that your Easter displays for this weekend’s Easter Egg Hunt drive by parade will be just as wonderful! He’ll be checking them out when he delivers his Easter baskets this weekend!
Seeing the boys and girls and their parents jumping up and down so excitedly made the Easter Bunny want to dance, sing and hop even more to the beat of the music by his personal DJ’s on both afternoons.
Did you know the Easter Bunny and his dedicated team clocked over 100 miles in the bright yellow Land Rover Defender convertible? They drove 55 miles on Saturday and 60 miles on Sunday. But even with all that mileage under his pink cottontail, there were some streets he missed, so being a clever bunny, he and his team improvised by announcing on their Facebook posts and livestream that they’d be visiting Ipswich River Park for the last hour Sunday afternoon. This time, it was the kids and their parents who drove past the gazebo to wave to the big white bunny, creating their own Easter parade. It was a great ending to a very fun weekend!
“Just seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces and the parents too. The whole atmosphere surrounding it all. It was really the kids that made it. It was one of those feel-good things and honestly, we got more out of it than they did,” the Easter Bunny told the newspaper.
EB (that’s what his friends from way back call him), said he really wanted to thank his chauffeur and one of his best friends, Mike Prisco, for making his visit to town possible. “He’s a doer, he’s a giver,” EB said of his pal. All EB had to say was “Hey Mike, I need you for the entire weekend” and guess what his friend said? “I’m there. What do you need?” You see kids, that’s what’s important. Your friends and family.
Speaking of family, EB also wants to thank two other special “peeps,” Hannah and Ryan Delaney, because they made excellent DJs and technical assistants with all the Facebook streaming stuff. EB prefers painting Easter eggs and posing for photos with the kids to that technical gibberish. He also gave a special shout out to Gina Prisco for the egg-cellent decorations on the Defender!
Asked why it was so important for him to show up a week early to visit the special kids in North Reading, EB thought for a moment and said: “These kids are not going to be able to go to the mall and get a picture taken with me this year and that’s huge.”
“Just to take their minds off the chaos that we are dealing with these days. That was the whole point. It was cathartic for me; it was beneficial and brought my anxiety level down. We were able to get out, get some nervous energy out for four hours each day.”
“My favorite part was seeing the reaction from the kids … just the smiles and the waves and the ‘I love you Easter Bunny!’ All of that. On Sylvia Road, the whole neighborhood was all lined up. There had to be 15 kids! And then yesterday, near Nutter Road and Eames Street, there was a huge group at one intersection where four streets came together. There was a bunch of kids and they’re running after the Easter Bunny in the truck and one kid was on a bicycle trying to chase us down. Those are the two things that are most memorable.”
EB also enjoyed the reaction from the parents and grandparents who told them their kids and grandkids could not stop talking about the Easter Bunny’s visit, even at bedtime.
“And the older segment of the community, people in their 60s and 70s who said, ‘oh this just made our weekend. It took our mind off what’s going on.’”
So that’s why this magical weekend was important for everyone of all ages. Now don’t forget to leave out some carrots for EB this weekend kids! And remember, please be kind and pay that kindness forward!