Easter Extravaganza on Nottingham
Sunday, April 4 was a perfect day; we could not have asked for better Michigan weather in early April.
Twiana Odom and I took full advantage of the sunny 70 degrees to host an Easter extravaganza in the western end of MorningSide, with some financial help from Brilliant Detroit. Utilizing two lush green Easter-bedazzled Detroit Land Bank lots running along Cornwall at Nottingham, we hid hundreds of Easter eggs for kids in the neighborhood.
Our children have been cooped up inside for the past year during Covid-19 lockdown and winter, not knowing when they can safely play together or celebrate holidays as we used to. Residents on the west side of MorningSide do not yet enjoy a developed park, but there are a number of potential community projects being discussed by the MorningSide Community Organization Board of Directors and Motor City Grounds Crew. You’ll be hearing more about them in future issues.
The history of Easter as we know it is quite fascinating, and the MorningSide community itself is going through a rebirth. Hundreds of beautiful castle-like houses, including 4706 Nottingham Rd., are being rehabbed at a rapid pace. A number of “victory gardens” are growing from the ashes of what were once the homes of many generations of Detroiters. Each spring we still see daffodils and tulips that outline the fence lines where homes used to be.
The day started out with elaborate egg decorating led by Twiana, who dyed the eggs, some with natural colors she invented herself. The kids loved the idea of being able to eat their spectacular creations after showing them proudly to their parents.
At around noon, the highly anticipated Easter egg hunt began. Because many children were attending church on Easter Sunday, we kept hiding more eggs for the darling kids that showed up at 1/2 hour intervals in masks and their Easter best. We had extra masks, lavender sanitizing wipes, and hand sanitizer on hand at all the craft and prize tables. Children created Easter-inspired paintings and played other organized exercise-oriented games.
They also enjoyed a few rounds of hot tater-tots with organic ketchup, organic apple juice, bottles of water, and tiny organic mandarin oranges, which we also hid inside the Easter eggs as a healthy surprise!
We may not have seen the Easter Bunny, but we did have six two-week-old chicks, which we allowed the children to hold. The teenagers seemed the most nervous about being extra gentle and holding them correctly. Everyone loved the experience and sat quietly cuddling the chicks for quite some time.
All afternoon and into the evening we had ongoing Nerf gun battles! Kids brought their very impressive Nerf guns, or used the ones that my son Daniel supplied. We had 1200 Nerf bullets to keep the kids of all ages supplied with ammo. The Nerf fun was great exercise and a lot of laughs. We were so happy to see teenagers chaperoning young siblings and having a really great time, eating heartily from dawn to dusk.
Images courtesy of Jim West
