LARNED — While COVID-19 concerns are keeping people at home this spring, the virus doesn’t appear to affect rabbits, and thus Saturday morning, sightings of Easter Bunny throughout Pawnee County were widely reported.  

Normally, various organizations would have invited Bunny to egg hunts organized by their members, and children would have been scurrying about in the grass, searching for plastic eggs filled with candy, providing ample photo opportunities for moms and dads.  But 2020 proved to be a different kind of Easter. 

Sponsored by the Larned Chamber of Commerce, the tour was inspired by the recent Larned USD 495 teacher caravan, Larned Chamber of Commerce’s Alex Filbert said. 

Assisted by first responders in four Pawnee County communities, Bunny made a circuit around the county, beginning in the western most edge of the county in Burdett and Rozell, then to Larned and finally Garfield. 

“In every community, the local fire departments led the way,” Filbert said.  “In Larned, the Pawnee County Sheriff and Larned police, fire and EMS personnel joined the parade.”

Families, anticipating the tour thanks to the timely announcements by the Larned Chamber of Commerce on social media earlier in the week,remembered to remain a safe distance from one another.

“In every community, there were kids out waving, excited to see the Easter bunny,” Filbert said.