Rebeca Cierniak made her Easter Bunny costume come to life by dancing to Bow Wow Wow’s timely song, “I Want Candy,” blasting from a speaker.
She sat in the back of a pickup truck, in front of an Easter egg backdrop with a decorative string of carrots draping the vehicle’s back gate.
“Look, it’s the Easter Bunny!” yelled a young girl from her driveway.
The girl smiled and waved as the pickup truck slowly drove past her home in the Tower Meadows neighborhood of Valparaiso.
Street after street, the pickup truck passed dozens of families waiting near the curb to smile, wave, and take photos or videos. A similar scenario took place in several other communities across Northwest Indiana this past week, thanks to Cierniak and her colleague Pam Joveski, two Realtors from Realest.com in Crown Point.
“With all this negativity, we decided to spread some joy,” Cierniak told me Tuesday before I shadowed her through that neighborhood. “We are doing it every day until Easter.”
The women created the Facebook page, Ladies 219, sharing weekly videos and giveaways with local businesses, as well as their Easter Bunny “drive-by’s” with help from Joveski’s husband, Saso Joveski. The trio takes turns inside the bunny suit. (Watch a video on my Facebook page.)
“We post our schedule daily on our Facebook page,” Cierniak said. “And we started using a live tracker so our audience can see where we are headed.”
One of the mothers whose children enjoyed the Easter Bunny drive-by told me she heard about it through a webpage for her Valparaiso neighborhood.
“My daughters we’re so excited,” the mother said. “This just gives them a little hope about the holiday even though they’re stuck at home.”
Hope is a precious commodity amid the pall of this pandemic. I’ve been paying more attention to moments that reflect hope or remind us it’s still in existence. My family calls these moments “nuggets of positivity.” They’re everywhere if you’re looking, like young children hunting for brightly-colored Easter eggs in the grass.
On Good Friday morning, Road to Life Church will be praying outside St. Anthony Hospital in Michigan City, in a caravan style, saying prayers for patients and frontline health care workers.
“It’s something positive during this time. We’re trying to spread love and hope,” church member Angela Moore told me.
Also on Good Friday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Chela’s Tacos and Cervezas, a restaurant located on Broadway near the Gary-Merrillville border, will be giving away free pork tacos (via carryout only, while supplies last).
It’s impossible to not notice all the gestures of good will taking place in our communities to help others in need or to bring a smile to those who need it most.
In Crown Point, Neighbors Helping Neighbors has become a model of exemplary good will to anyone in need. (For more info, visit its Facebook or Instagram page.)
“This Crown Point Neighbors Helping Neighbors tribe is NOT going away!” administrator Jana Caudill wrote on the webpage Thursday. “It’s taken on a life of its own and has filled the needs of many.”
“Any needs BIG or small – just ask! Don’t be shy or humble. That’s what this is all about and what we are here for! You can call/text 219-712-1365, or email your requests to crownpointstrong@gmail.com Be safe, be kind, stay healthy!” she wrote.
WeCreate in Valparaiso lived up to its brand by creating an online resource for local small businesses in Northwest Indiana. You can find it at nwistrong.com.
“It’s a free open-source directory where businesses can submit how they are still in business and serving the local community from a safe distance,” founder Wade Breitzke told me. “It’s also for people who utilize those businesses and nonprofits in a time of uncertainty and fear.”
Its webpage states, “Our goal is to become an important go-to resource during and following the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Although a crisis of this magnitude has never happened in our lifetimes, we’ve experienced deeply challenging times as a people. We’ve persevered each time. We will do it again through this pandemic. Hope will again be a cornerstone of our response to it.
Last weekend, I watched a family use colored chalk to draw a heart around the word “Hope” on the Portage bike trail. I couldn’t miss it because I’ve been looking for it, even if it’s only in chalk writing that will eventually fade away.
It’s impossible to not notice the outbreak of beautiful flowers, foliage and natural beauty spreading across every neighborhood as spring emerges. We should infect ourselves with its seasonal promise for a blossoming future. It takes nothing more than noticing it, and appreciating it, possibly more than ever in our lives.
Keith Bowers seemed to capture this hopeful, fearless attitude before his unexpected death last week. The Merrillville resident, a fellow Wirt High School Trooper and a Facebook friend, was killed April 1 in a head-on traffic collision in Tinley Park, Illinois.
According to Illinois State Police, the other driver was traveling in the wrong direction when his vehicle struck Bowers’ SUV. Both men died at the scene. Their deaths were ruled accidental, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. Bowers was 48.
Two days before his death, Bowers posted this prophetic message on his Facebook page: “Quit being scared. Quit being afraid of the unknown. Quit living in fear. People are still leaving this earth without this COVID-19.”
As Christians are reminded on this holy day, nothing puts life into perspective like death. And nothing puts hope into perspective like these challenging times.
As Bowers ended his post, “Be careful and enjoy your loved ones. It’s a great opportunity to take advantage of it. Why not?”
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