The COVID-19 quarantine might have shut down costume shops during the typically busy Easter season—but that didn’t stop the Easter Bunny from making his (or her!) annual trip down the bunny trail. Determined not to let the season pass uncelebrated, NCA board members and their families found creative ways to bring a basket of springtime cheer to their communities.
In Freeport, Illinois, Merlyn Foat—husband of Camelot Costumes’ Linda Adams-Foat—donned an Easter Bunny costume and hopped to several nursing homes with Linda to deliver greetings (while social distancing from outside the facilities, of course) to residents inside.
In Fairmont, West Virginia, Illusive Skull Costume Castle came up with a way to entertain customers and build future business, too: Owner Pam Markel unearthed an old, worn-out stuffed bunny, set it in her shop’s window, and asked people to come up with a name befitting the lame rabbit. The prize: A $25 gift certificate from her shop. She promoted the contest in the window and on Facebook. The winning name? Peter Rottentail!
And in Omaha, Nebraska, Dwayne Ibsen of Ibsen Costume Gallery put his daughter to work: She stood under the shop’s awning dressed in a bunny outfit and waved as families drove by. "Lots of people had tears in their eyes," Ibsen reports.