Easter Egg Hunt

Unable to run trips on Dragonfly because of the continuing blockade of the canal by a landowner, my wife decided to put together an Easter egg hunt, using Dragonfly as a base but with a Trust gazebo on the bank so we were Covid safe. She and her daughter devised a programme whereby we attached 9 laminated egg pictures to landmarks along the towpath, each bearing a letter. I devised clues to each one; we bought several hundred chocolate mini-eggs and Waitrose donated a couple of hundred. David Wilson Homes kindly printed around 150 programme sheets containing instructions, a colouring in picture, a word puzzle and an i spy, all Easter themed. We packed 200 paper bags with selected eggs for the prizes (the word formed by the letters, which was 'Dragonfly') & charged £3 per child. We reckoned that we'd be doing well with 50 children a day.

I advertised it on Facebook, and the same day had an offer of help from Dominic, who works at Paris Disney as Goofy (and various other characters) to help, in costume, as a volunteer! Naturally we accepted; he drove to Grantham to collect a bear costume called Bentley, & we did a dress rehearsal on Maundy Thursday. We used Dragonfly as a dressing room - he needed assistance to get in & out of the costume - so all was ready. On Good Friday (when Bentley wasn't available) we saw some 90 children, & on Easter Saturday saw about 110 - we were out of chocolate eggs! We rushed around & bought more, & spent that evening filling another 100 paper bags & printing more programmes - by the end of Easter Sunday they'd virtually all gone, so we had to call it a day. But it was such fun - Bentley was, of course, a star. A visiting PCSO confirmed that we were within the Covid rules, and even said we could use our photo of her with Bentley - see above!

Total profit for the three days was almost £650 - not bad, and we gave out over 100 leaflets. And Bentley hopes to be back for the early May Bank Holiday, for a nature trail we're planning!