The Power Of Community - Editorial
Despite the rainy April weather, families were out in droves last Sunday to participate in the third annual town-wide Character Easter Egg Hunt, which was once again an amazing showing of the things this community can do when its members come together.
There were somehow even more delightful hand-painted wooden characters than there were last year—up to 108 from last year’s 72—featuring cartoon favorites from Donald Duck to Paw Patrol and seemingly everyone in between.
The stakes were higher, too—and by high stakes, we of course mean the amount of treasure to be scavenged, with the number of goodies (mostly small toys and candies) clocking in at a whopping 30,000.
Shelbi Lynn Palmer, a resident raising her family in Buzzards Bay, kickstarted the now-annual tradition a few years ago, and it grows bigger each year thanks to the community’s support. The characters are hand-painted by Ms. Palmer and the artistry itself is downright astounding. We’ve seen several of the characters over the last few weeks driving around town, and they are just a joy to see. We routinely pass by the Cheshire Cat, and seeing his sly grin on our way down Sandwich Road never fails to brighten our day.
Each year, Ms. Palmer helps this large-scale, town-wide event come together through the power of community. She has crowdsourced a lot of the items—and the help stuffing the eggs—from her fellow Bourne residents. This year, several local businesses stepped up, too, to help support the event, host a character and hand out some eggs on the day of the hunt. There was a line out the door at O’playsis Collaborative Arts Studio & Music Lounge, right on Main Street in Buzzards Bay. Inside it was a kids paradise, where they could get pictures with the Easter Bunny, indulge in yummy treats and get balloon animals.
All of this fun had and these memories made came about from an idea that Ms. Palmer had a few years ago. It grew and grew into this wonderful thing thanks to the support of the community, of our neighbors, of strangers. And at a time where there is so much strife in the world, we think that is a pretty beautiful thing.
If you missed out on the fun last Sunday, don’t fret! Ms. Palmer told us that there are plans in the works to re-open the egg hunt for an extra day, due to the inclement weather last weekend. Updates regarding the exact date will be posted on Ms. Palmer’s Facebook page, but it will be sometime during school vacation next week. There are plenty of eggs still out there, Bourne—go get ‘em!