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Hoppy Easter from the Lodge 7 Family Auxiliary
n BY ROSEMARY AN
Since 1993, the Easter Bunny has visit- ed Chicago Lodge 7 to enjoy a lunch with children and their families at the annu- al FOP Family Auxiliary “Lunch with the Easter Bunny” event.
But in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the holiday event that children of Chicago Police Officers look forward to every year.
So FOP Family Auxiliary President An- gie Haynes wanted to ensure the Easter Bunny would visit this year — even if the occasion needed to be revamped with new safety protocols due to the pandem- ic.
“I felt that the kids needed something,” Haynes explained. “We always get a good response when we do the event, and be- cause we missed it last year, I wanted to have it this year for the children.”
Nearly 100 children and their families attended the “Meet the Easter Bunny” event on March 27, with 22nd District Of-
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ficer Wilmer Hernandez doing a tour as the Easter Bunny. From 11 a.m. to almost 2 p.m., children filtered in and out of the FOP Hall to take pictures with the Easter Bunny and receive goodie bags with can- dy donated by the Hershey Company.
“It was really cute to see the families take pictures with the Easter Bunny,” Haynes remarked. “We also used the ma- terials we couldn’t use in 2020, so we had little cups with bunny decorations and filled them with candy and pencils.”
Unlike past years, there was no lunch, raffle or Easter egg hunt this time. In- stead, the children, who took their masks off only for photos, were able to do a meet and greet with the Easter Bun- ny and even received stuffed bunnies as gifts. There was also child-friendly music playing in the background.
“It worked out really well for some- thing we never did before,” Haynes not- ed. “There was a lot of space, children were scattered and everybody comment- ed on how great the event turned out.”