Franklin Square residents spread Easter cheer

The Easter Bunny may not have been able to visit everyone’s home this year — as she, too, needed to maintain social distancing to protect herself against the coronavirus — but that didn’t stop her from making several appearances in Franklin Square this year.

It all started when Kristy Bourne-Jaime’s 5-year-old daughter asked her whether they would see the Easter Bunny this year, like they normally do. Saddened by the question, and concerned about all of the other children in Franklin Square who might miss out on Easter traditions this year, Bourne-Jaime, a co-president of the Polk Street School Parent Teacher Association, decided to spread holiday cheer.

Last Friday she borrowed an Easter Bunny costume from a friend and posed for photos in front of all three Franklin Square elementary schools, which she sent to the principals. She also posted on social media that she would be driving around town in the costume the following day, and residents who wanted her to pass by their homes could message her with a request.

“Our message box got flooded,” she recounted, referring to PTA board members’ social media pages, with messages asking, “‘Can you stop here?’ and ‘Can you stop here?’”

She even received a request from a grandmother who was upset that she wouldn’t be able to see her grandson on his 18th birthday, and asking Bourne-Jaime if she would stop by his house and tell him, “Happy Birthday from Grandma Fran.”

Bourne-Jaime happily obliged, and said the teenager was grateful for the visit. “It was very nice,” she said. “My heart was filled with joy.”

She and the other Polk Street PTA board members spent Saturday afternoon driving around South Garden City, Franklin Square and Malverne. As they cruised in their decorated cars, Bourne-Jaime said, they passed families cheering them on and children chasing them on their bicycles.

“It felt great that everyone was able to have that cheer during this time,” Bourne-Jaime noted. “I was just so happy to do that and give back.”

And she wasn’t the only Franklin Square resident who tried to lift people’s spirits over the holiday weekend. As she was driving around town, Christine Gangone and her friends entertained passersby at Rath Park, dressed in inflatable costumes.

Gangone said she and her friend Michele Hall were inspired by a video they saw on Facebook of a woman wearing an inflatable costume while shopping at Walmart. “We thought it was hilarious, and decided we should buy costumes ourselves and walk around town,” Gangone said. “We thought little kids would get a kick out of it.”

Then, she said, more of her friends wanted to get involved, and one even had an Easter Bunny costume. Another, Lisa Vellos, suggested they have an inflatable animal parade at Rath Park. “It all just fell into place, really,” Gangone recalled, adding that the Rath Park idea was “great because it’s kind of hard to walk in the costumes.”

So, on Saturday afternoon, several adults in inflatable costumes — including a giraffe, a unicorn and dinosaur — played music and “acted silly,” as Gangone described it, for children driving by.

“We all just wanted to bring some sort of happiness, and try to take their minds off quarantine right now,” she explained, noting, “I’m an adult, and I’d get a kick out of it.”

Even the Franklin Square & Munson Fire Department got in on the fun. The department has been inundated with emergency calls during the pandemic, according to volunteer Firefighter Chris Howard. Making matters worse, he said, many traditional Easter celebrations had been canceled.

“Spirits are low right now,” Howard, a volunteer for Engine 711, said. “So the least we can do for the kids and adults is bring a smile to their faces in these uncertain times.”

So Howard suggested that the Fire Department chauffer the Easter Bunny around town on Easter Sunday morning. Trucks blared their horns and traveled in a caravan, with the bunny riding in the first truck.

The parade started that morning in Garden City South, where residents outside their houses cheered and waved, and fire department officials threw candy eggs out their windows. Children were happy to see the bunny, Lauren McManamy posted on Facebook that night, and Kerri Kiefer-Viverito wrote, “just the thought of this at such a sad time was such a beautiful thing.”