Easter, Social Distancing Style
Hueytown neighborhood brings cheer with Easter tradition
BY JEANA DURST
The coronavirus changed almost every facet
of our lives—including how we celebrated
Easter festivities. The families of
the Westwind Neighborhood in
Hueytown pitched in to save the
Easter tradition of egg hunts.
Hueytown City Council President
Jay Jacks got the idea to host a
social distance Easter Egg Hunt
after seeing how much families
enjoyed checking out the teddy
bears on display in windows. From
April 3 through 12, large paper
Easter eggs adorned the houses of
residents. A simple pattern that could be made
with paper was distributed and pasted in many
windows. “People had climbed up into dormers
in their attics and put eggs up there, and one
couple who has never had kids decorated with
plastic eggs throughout their yard,” Jacks says.
Fifth-grader sews masks for healthcare workers
24 Bham Family May 2020
The season’s most famous rabbit even made the
rounds in a golf cart to the delight of the children,
who stood in their yards and waved to the Easter
Bunny. Jacks describes the positive effect it had
during the stressful time. “Each night
I saw families riding and walking, and
I really think just seeing other people
helps clean your mind,” he says. Even
if neighbors couldn’t visit, they could
wave and shout across lawns.
What was happening was more
than an egg hunt. This joint effort
was just one more example of
during the COVID-19 quarantine
despite the obstacles. Jacks, who has
lived in the Hueytown/Concord area
all of his life, remarks that Hueytown has always
been a tightknit community, and points out this
silver lining: “I truly believe in this horrible time
there are great things that are coming from it; we
are rebuilding families and rebuilding community
bonds.”
Mountain Brook Elementary
for healthcare workers across the
Birmingham metro area. “It makes me
feel good because I’m doing my part
and what we need to do in this crazy
time,” Claire says.
Leonard grew up sewing by hand
with her grandparents and learned
how to use a sewing machine a year
ago. When her mother, Elena, a parttime
physical therapist at a skilled nursing facility,
found out that some coworkers needed masks, she
knew where to turn.
Claire rose to the challenge. She started sewing
cotton masks at her home with the help of her
mother and sister, Ann Elise, a seventh-grader
at Mountain Brook Junior High. It takes about
different patterns on the exterior and a pocket
gone with her mother to deliver the
masks to their recipients at Elena’s
workplace and hospitals such as UAB
and St. Vincent’s. “We’ve gotten text
messages from several of the nurses
with pictures of themselves in the
masks and telling us how grateful
they are and how they wouldn’t have
a mask if she had not made these
available to them,” Elena says.
Claire said she plans to keep sewing
masks until they are no longer needed. Mountain
Brook Elementary Principal Ashley McCombs said
to lead from the heart. “When we see students take
an initiative to do that and have servant leadership,
it is a proud moment,” McCombs says.”
Reprinted with permission from Mountain Brook Schools
“Good News” series.