APRIL FOOLS — No eggs? Simply rock on in Lakewood Ranch

While passing out 20,000 plastic eggs at the Greenbrook Adventure Park didn't seem like a good idea during the COVID-19 pandemic, a couple of local moms have an idea they hope saves the holiday for small children.

The first, and hopefully only, Easter Egg Rock Hunt is making its debut on Easter Sunday.

Mindy Pearl and Jade Quaray started to wonder about what they could have the kids collect that wouldn't be conducive to spreading any possible germs.

They also needed to find something that wouldn't cost them money to spread around the Adventure Park.

"We started to talk about kindness rocks," Quaray said. "While we have't spread out a bunch of kindness rocks with messages, the stones already are out there. Since they already are out there, there is no need to have a mass rush to collect the plastic eggs. I mean, when you find a rock, you just have a rock."

Spacing things out, Pearl said they will place 10 prize rocks throughout the park. The prize rocks will be positioned at different times of the event, so there will be no need for everyone to show up when the event begins at 9 a.m. It runs through 2 p.m. The grand prize is a Trek Madone SLR Road Bike valued at $10,000.

The two women say the event will help children get back to nature on Easter as opposed to seeing the holiday as a time to gorge themselves with candy.

"Let's face it," Pearl said. "Our children usually don't even have to work at all to find those plastic eggs. They are just sitting there on the ground, because, God forbid, Ginny gets 14 eggs and Tommy only gets 7. We might as well pour the plastic eggs right into their basket."

This will be different. Children participating will be told to concentrate on "larger" rocks, perhaps a half pound to more in size. They will be digging all over the Adventure Park to find those rocks and getting their hands dirty along the way. They won't get one piece of candy for their efforts.

Pearl and Quaray came up with the idea in January and they were hoping to find a support group. They did so in hooking up with the Environmental Nobles of Manatee County. The group, which is four years old, was formed to convince people to be above trashing their environment.

ENMC will operate a check-in station in the middle of the park. After the children go out into the park and pile about 20 pounds of rocks into their baskets, they will drop off the rocks at the check-in site.

"Not only can we pass out a ton of our brochures to children to get them into the right way of thinking, we can accomplish a project we've been thinking about for some time at the Adventure Park," said Nate Ture. "We would like to build a habitat that will double as both a bird bath and a turtle sanctuary. The rocks will be perfect for the project."

Some local parents say the event is silly and can't replace the traditional egg hunt.

"Rocks? I think someone has rocks in their head," said Greenbrook's Bud Bush. "If I wanted my kids to be digging, I would just go to the beach. Sometimes it's just better to cancel an event."

Pearl disagrees, and even if the regular egg hunt is back next year, she could see some kind of similar event, perhaps leaves next year instead of rocks.

"Can you imagine all the happy children climbing in the trees?," she said.