In most houses, the Easter bunny visits in the middle of the night, but in Moncton, he shows up on a motorcycle.
Biker Bunny started eight years ago, bringing more than just chocolate to the city. His goal is to deliver happiness.
“Just the reactions,” he said. “The reactions of everybody from two to 92, there’s no age limit to get a smile out of a motorcycle-riding Easter bunny. It’s never been done before around here.”
Over Easter weekend, the bunny had a full schedule with 12 hour days planned for both Saturday and Sunday, including over 100 homes to visit throughout the city.
“The thing is with the price of everything going up, families are working double-time just to pay the mortgage, feed the kids, there’s no parent-kid time anymore,” he said. “So, if I can break that cycle by driving through the neighbourhood and getting a picture and getting a couple of smiles, even if it only lasts a few minutes, it makes it all worth it in the end.”
One of his first weekend stops was at Pinehurst Park for a community-wide Easter egg hunt. Nearly 50 kids and their families came out for a morning of excitement on Saturday.
For Oleksii Titov, Dina Titova and their two children, it is their first Easter celebration in Canada after fleeing Ukraine last year.
“It’s unusual,” said Titov. “We have Easter in Ukraine, but it is different what we do. We don’t have an Easter bunny. We usually go into the church, all night we’re in the church, we’ll make some bread for Easter, we paint eggs every Easter and we crush the eggs,” he adds.
However, the family is excited to participate and take on a new tradition.
“We’re very happy because in our country, it’s not a good situation now and in Canada we feel free and it’s most important for our family and also our kids,” said Titova.
“In Canada and Ukraine, it looks different. For us, it’s very beautiful. Our host family, where we live after we come [to] Canada, they share information about celebrate Easter, and for our family, it is so interesting.”
The neighbourhood hunt started last year. Daphne Hachey says it was a way to get everyone back together following COVID-19 lockdowns.
“I just put it on Facebook, if anyone wanted to come and be involved and participate, and everyone in the community seemed really excited and wanted to do it,” she said.
It’s also a collaborative effort. Every parent goes and decorates the park ahead of the hunt so that there are enough treats for every kid who wants to participate.
“It’s so great and hopefully we’re going to spark some core memories in these little guys and everyone just wants to come out and hang out with everybody,” said Hachey.
On top of bringing the community together, seeing the Biker Bunny and having fun over the holiday, the community also helped raise money for kids in need.
“The Biker Bunny raises money for the Canadian Tire Jumpstart Program so I just had a donation box and I was collecting money from anyone that wanted to donate,” said Hachey. “This year, we donated $148 to them, so that was really great. Last year, we donated about $75, so hopefully it keeps growing every year.”
