Easter Bunny visits Flora Vista students

To replace the usual trips to see the Easter Bunny, egg hunts and other springtime holiday activities, a Flora Vista Elementary School parent arranged for the Easter Bunny to take a ride around town.

Students at the school were able to maintain proper social distancing by staying in their homes as the bunny waved from the back of a pickup truck, driving by hundreds of homes.

“My boys were over the moon,” said Encinitas resident Jeff Ladman, whose home was included on the route.

All students from Flora Vista, which is in the Encinitas Union School District, have been home since schools across the country closed in mid-March to curb the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Similar makeshift Easter celebrations have taken place in communities across the country, including another family that held an Easter Bunny ride around town in Solana Beach and Del Mar. With the cancellation of various community Easter events, neighbors have been finding creative ways to mark the holidays while still complying with social distancing and shelter-in-place guidelines.

“This gesture is one of the many reasons I love Flora Vista and Encinitas,” Ladman wrote in a Facebook post. “Thank you for lifting our spirits.” — Report by Luke Harold