{"id":16908,"date":"2017-03-29T16:34:23","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T20:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16908"},"modified":"2017-03-29T16:34:23","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T20:34:23","slug":"inside-aurora-best-stressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-best-stressed\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Best Stressed"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a fine spring day (finally) and I was out strolling through the arboretum, when I spied a familiar figure slumped on a bench.
\nIt was the Easter Bunny.
\nHis fur was clumpy, his right foot was twitching, his ears were drooping, and he was wringing his little hands together constantly. He looked stressed.
\nUnderstandably curious, I sat beside him.
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s the matter?\u201d I asked.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s my annual visit to Town for Easter,\u201d he sighed. \u201cIt may never be the same again.\u201d
\nMy eyes went wide. This was serious.
\n\u201cWhy\u2019s that? Have you had an issue with getting ready? I know there\u2019s a lot of preparation involved for your big day April 15 at the Seniors\u2019 Centre, but you still have two weeks to go.\u201d
\n\u201cNo, it\u2019s not that. As usual, the Girl Guides and Town staff have been a big help in organizing everything. We\u2019re all set.\u201d
\nThen he said four words I wasn\u2019t expecting to hear.
\n\u201cMy problem\u2019s Activate Aurora!\u201d
\n\u201cYou mean the local group who\u2019s working to improve fitness, and get kids out into the fresh air? They have pretty positive goals. How can they be a problem?\u201d
\n\u201cYou know they\u2019re pushing a healthy agenda in Town?\u201d
\nI nodded.
\n\u201cWell, last year they targeted sugary drinks, and lobbied for the Town to ban them from the vending machines in Aurora\u2019s sports centres and other public buildings.\u201d
\n\u201cSo?\u201d
\n\u201cDon\u2019t you see?\u201d He placed his paws on his chest. \u201cI deliver chocolate and jelly beans and all sorts of sugary goodies to kids every year. While they haven\u2019t done so yet, it\u2019s inevitable that Activate Aurora will target me next,\u201d he concluded, sighing dramatically.
\nWe sat quietly for a minute. He looked the other way. I think he was crying and didn\u2019t want me to see.
\nThen I thought of something.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t you have a lot of things lined up for your visit to Town?\u201d
\n\u201cOh, yes,\u201d he said, briefly coming out of his funk. \u201cWe pack a lot into our half day at the Seniors\u2019 Centre. There\u2019s the \u2018hopstacle\u2019 course, bunny bowling, duck pond toss, feed the bunny game, and all sorts of other crafts and activities.\u201d
\n\u201cAnd of course,\u201d he smiled, \u201cthe egg hunt itself. Everyone always has a great time.\u201d
\n\u201cI think that\u2019s your answer,\u201d I said. \u201cThe children will be running around and expending tons of energy with the excitement of seeing you and enjoying all those events. I\u2019m sure that the folks at Activate Aurora will be pleased with that, and for this one day will overlook the kids having a few treats.\u201d
\n\u201cYou think so?\u201d he asked, looking at me with red rimmed eyes.
\n\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d I assured him. \u201cYou\u2019ve got nothing to worry about.\u201d
\n\u201cMaybe you\u2019re right,\u201d he said, getting to his feet. \u201cWe\u2019ll see how the next two weeks go.\u201d
\nWith that, he bid me goodbye and hopped slowly off up the trail.
\nAs I watched him disappear around a bend, I thought instead of being a potential target, he might almost be a good spokesperson for Activate Aurora. If only all those calories he was burning off himself weren\u2019t due to stress.
\nFeel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston It was a fine spring day (finally) and I was out strolling through the arboretum, when I spied a familiar figure slumped on a bench. It was the Easter Bunny. His fur was clumpy, his right foot was twitching, his ears were drooping, and he was wringing his little hands together constantly. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4oI","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 23:29:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}