{"id":28997,"date":"2021-03-25T23:22:25","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T03:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=28997"},"modified":"2021-04-02T00:21:41","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T04:21:41","slug":"say-hello-to-spring-with-distanced-celebration-in-arboretum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/say-hello-to-spring-with-distanced-celebration-in-arboretum\/","title":{"rendered":"Say \u201cHello\u201d to Spring with distanced celebration in Arboretum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spring is a time for rebirth and while we wait for the dawn of a new \u201cnew normal\u201d you can celebrate the start of a new season \u2013 and Easter \u2013 next Saturday with \u201cHello Spring,\u201d hosted by the Town of Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hello Spring is a new spin on the Town\u2019s traditional Easter Egg-stravaganza. Held at the John West Way entrance to the Aurora Community Arboretum, just behind the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre, Hello Spring will encourage pre-registered residents to get out and explore nature while taking part in themed outdoor activities and, of course, meet the Easter Bunny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn looking at Easter, our former event had thousands of people in attendance, so it was a matter of going back to basics to figure out how we can have a great experience with health guidelines in place, trying to keep it outside,\u201d says Shelley Ware, Special Events Coordinator for the Town of Aurora. \u201cIt was a lot of brainstorming, looking at core elements, and what was the common denominator? The beginning of spring. From there, we looked at events that would follow the guidelines\u2026 not just follow them, but exceed them. We know that historically, the [Easter Egg Hunt] was really a true multigenerational event and we wanted to come up with some combination of hands-on activities for parents to do with their children and some individual activities like planting spring flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want families to make good spring memories, knowing they are doing it safely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t only brainstorming that went into the event; planning also included tailoring activities to the varied terrain of the Arboretum, including the picturesque trails that go through the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a very good relationship with the Easter Bunny, who always loves coming to Aurora,\u201d says Ms. Ware. \u201cWe were fortunate with our experience of welcoming Santa Claus over the Christmas period that we had a way to make the Easter Bunny safe, so the first activity on the agenda is families being able to have a COVID-safe photo opportunity with the Easter Bunny in Petch House. After that, families will \u2018hop\u2019 along the trail, which is where we will have interactive activities, the first stop being where children can plant spring flowers. They will have a chance to dig in the dirt, put the seedling in, water it and take it home to watch it grow and blossom over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThroughout the trail there will be Spring-themed jokes for the families, but we wanted to make it educational at the same time. Further down the trail, we have an Eye Spy, which is all about nature, there will be Fishing for Eggs where kids can \u2018fish\u2019 for plastic eggs on ribbons and place them in a basket. It\u2019s not the easiest activities, so it will be fun and frustrating too! Maybe kids can play against their guardians that come with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning favourites include a \u201cHopstacle Course\u201d to keep kids active with minimal touch points, a return to nature with activities based around pine cones (you might need to warm up your pitching arm!) and huts along the way where kids twelve and under can collect activity bags brimming over with five different craft packages to continue the fun at home. Additional at-home activities will be launched online closer to the April 2 event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love to watch the experiences and interactions with families,\u201d says Ms. Ware, who has worked diligently over the last year, along with her team, to recreate some of the most popular and traditional family-friendly events to reflect present challenges. \u201cYou can see how the experience transforms them and that is what I think defines success: helping to create memories that kids will be talking about not just that Saturday but weeks from now. We also hope the kids find a connection with that section of Aurora. Even though the predominant experience is with their family, they are experiencing a portion of their community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is also about seeing the confidence and trust that attendees have with the Town to deliver a safe experience. In addition to that, seeing the confidence and trust they have placed in our volunteers, where we have exceeded the safety measures are required of us and people are going into this with confidence. It\u2019s the culmination of wanting to reach higher than is standard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pre-registration for the Hello Spring activity begins this Thursday, March 25. Tickets are $3 per person. The event itself will take place on Saturday, April 3 from 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., with 30-minute timeslots available for booking. Pre-registration is required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, visit aurora.ca\/hellospring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spring is a time for rebirth and while we wait for the dawn of a new \u201cnew normal\u201d you can celebrate the start of a new season \u2013 and Easter \u2013 next Saturday with \u201cHello Spring,\u201d hosted by the Town of Aurora. Hello Spring is a new spin on the Town\u2019s traditional Easter Egg-stravaganza. Held […]<\/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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7xH","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 05:08:19","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\/28997","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=28997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}