It’s been more than a year since civic groups have organized and hosted large-scale community events, but that’s about to change.
Mark your family calendars for these fun springtime events:
• The Royalton Hills Lions will be offering photos with the Easter Bunny from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 20 and 21, at the Memorial Park Pavilion. Everyone in your household is welcome to join in on the fun, pets included, said President Cindy Palmentera. A donation of $5 is requested for your digital photo to be emailed to you. For an additional $5, a family can choose from a 5×7 or 8×10 print. All proceeds will be used to support Royalton Hills Lions service projects, local high school scholarships and disaster relief efforts.
• Members of the Royalton Hills Lions and the North Royalton Lions clubs will sponsor a free Community Easter Egg Hunt at 1 p.m. March 28, at the Memorial Park Playground for children ages 2-8. The Easter Bunny will be walking the grounds visiting with children and members of the North Royalton High School Key Club will be on-hand to help, Palmentera said. Residents of Royalton Woods will be filling the Easter eggs with candy pieces and youngsters will be let into the playground in small groups to find their eggs.
All volunteers at these events will be wearing masks and practicing social distancing. They encourage guests to do the same by following all safety protocols. Events will be held rain or shine.
“We are really happy to be able to be planning and hosting these events as we try to get back to our pre-Covid community activities,” Palmentera said in an email interview.
Members of the Royalton Hills Lions have stayed active throughout the pandemic with several projects including the collection of items for the local food pantry, the delivery of Christmas cards and the mailing of birthday cards to residents of assisted living communities, Palmentera said. The Royalton Hills Lions plans to deliver goody baskets to local police and fire departments and candy-filled Easter eggs to assisted living communities. The civic group also plans to return to in-person monthly meetings “in the very near future,” Palmentera said. Throughout the pandemic, they’ve met monthly via Zoom.
The North Royalton City Council also has announced its plans for an Easter Celebration Tour set for noon-3 p.m. March 27. Like the Santa Tour held this past December, the Easter Bunny will hop on the Euclid Beach Rocket Car for a ride through city streets waving hello to residents as he rides by.
“We will do our best to stop and wave at groups at individual homes,” said City Council President Paul Marnecheck, who added that no city funds are being used for this event. “A tour map will be posted on the City’s Facebook page and we are planning on providing real-time updates of where we are on our tour. Our goal with this is to have a nice, low-key event to make Easter special for those youngsters in our community and perhaps even older adults who can do something safe from a distance. We had a great Santa Tour and we learned from that, how long it takes us to get through areas and what worked and what didn’t. We now have a better idea of how long it takes us to get through areas of town.”
Marnecheck notes how residents have some nice community options this upcoming Easter.
“With the civic organizations, they can go see the bunny, and with the City Council Tour, they can see it from their home and the Easter Bunny will come to them,” he said.
And with a deliberate hint in his voice, added: “I’m pretty sure the Easter Bunny will be rocking one of his favorite signature festive bowties.”
By SARA MACHO HILL
Contributing Writer