Spencer found a way to save Easter joy

For over 20 years, the Spencer FFA Chapter has hosted the community-wide Easter Egg Hunt. Over 3,000 plastic eggs would be “hidden” and hundreds of people would come out to collect. Easter 2020 was different.

With the looming COVID crisis, the Easter Egg Hunt was out of the question. This did not just upset us, it hurt the community families, as well. After finding out some kids were told that the Easter bunny was not coming this year, Katelyn and Cortney Zimmerman got right to work.

Katelyn and Cortney worked to find an alternative solution to make and deliver Easter baskets.

“We couldn’t go to church or have our Easter Egg Hunt and after realizing all the kids we impacted with that Easter Egg Hunt, we were wondering what we could do for those kids and how we could make something fun out of this for their own Easter,” said Cortney.

With the help of donations and sponsorships, we were able to put together over 100 baskets to deliver to the kids of the community. Katelyn Zimmerman said, “We ended up making some really cool baskets with different activi- ties like seed-growing kits and puzzles and card games and stuffed animals and toys, so we have just a good variety of things for kids of different ages to participate in.”

A post on the Spencer FFA Chapter’s Facebook page with a sign-up form showed the community’s overwhelming response. The Spencer Fire Department and EMS got involved and helped us, with fire trucks and ambulances to make the special deliveries. The 107 baskets were loaded and Spencer FFA members headed out to make the personal deliveries at the children’s homes!

It was an incredible opportunity to help bring joy during these hard times. The Spencer FFA would like to thank the sponsors: Spencer Youth Recreations, Inc., Spencer Area Chamber of Commerce, Spencer Community Boosters, Morgan’s Mission, Spencer Lions Club, Citizens State Bank of Loyal, Partners Bank, A& W of Spencer, Culver’s, and McDonald’s.