By TIM KELLY
“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” – Victor Hugo
Jessica Keenan wanted to do something for the kids.
Ocean City residents were doing a great job in recent days of “flattening the curve” of the worldwide coronavirus outbreak by staying at home.
But part of the price being paid in slowing the spread of the illness was another non-viral malady brought on by self-quarantine and social distancing: the one known as “cabin fever.”
Keenan, a kindergarten teacher in the Upper Township public school system who lives in the Merion Park section of Ocean City, was feeling it herself.
“We are educators. We want to be in school with our kids,” she said in a social media post. “We miss you, and we are still here for you.”
The time was right, and the people were ready for Keenan’s “Bear Hunt” in the neighborhood.
With the help of social media, a strong response from her community and a beautiful spring day, folks were all over the neighborhood Thursday, enjoying their permitted exercise walk, “hunting bears” and finding them by the dozens.
It all started earlier in the week when Keenan began thinking about putting a fun activity together to “Just let people forget about all the serious stuff for a while and to get out there and have some fun.”
She became inspired when she saw a Facebook post by a Texas woman, Crystal Radke, who suggested folks play a game based on the beloved children’s book “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury.
The idea was a simple but fun one: to inform the neighbors to display stuffed bears and images of bears in windows, doorways, porches, and other spots around the community so that kids and their parents or caregivers could go for a walk and have a “bear hunt.”
“The feedback has been just incredible,” said Keenan. “As of (Thursday afternoon) we were up to 98 bears so far that have been spotted.”
Jessica posted her idea on the Merion Park Facebook page.
“One of the reasons my husband (Ed) and I chose to move to Merion Park is because it’s a neighborhood. Lots of young families.”
She said she also felt the pangs of being a first-year empty nester, with the couples’ son Ed Jr. living in Philadelphia and daughter Megan at St. Joseph’s University.
She wasn’t sure what to expect. So out Keenan went Thursday morning and couldn’t believe her eyes.
“There were bears all over the place,” she said. “One of the neatest things I saw was a grandmother out with two girls. The kids had clipboards and they were all having great fun spotting the bears and (documenting) them.”
“It’s just something that’s easy, and fun for the kids,” she said. “It’s a chance to get out there and put everything on ‘pause’ and to not think about all the serious stuff for a while.”
She’s asking people to keep the bears out for a while longer to give other families a chance to go on a “bear hunt” if they haven’t done so already.
But should predicted wet weather or the quarantine prevent it from happening, fret not, Merion Park.
Keenan said a group of neighborhood kids plan on duplicating the idea for the following week.
“They are already talking on social media about displaying rainbows around the neighborhood next week,” she said.
