By Megan Brown, Student Reporter
New members of the Alva community are making a debut, stuffed bears are starting to pop up all over town. After a Facebook post shared by a former elementary school teacher, Dru Washburn and suggesting the idea of a town-wide bear hunt was picked up by many community members.
The idea is to place a bear in a visible location anywhere on your property and allow children and their families to share in a fun, safe activity of hunting the bears while practicing social distancing.
Washburn suggested in her post children could use the hunt to practice math while counting the bears or organizing them by size and color.
Lori and John Caviness sparked a lot of interest with the location of their bear.
“I suggested putting the bear in the cop car and John liked the idea,” Lori Caviness said. “I was surprised that everyone liked the bear in John’s car. We loved that it brings smiles to others.”
This specific bear was featured in many different social media posts, including a video shown on KOCO 5 News. Many of the posts played off the idea of the bear being put into custody.
The Caviness’ said their daughter loved hunting the bears and they had gone several times.
“She loved all the ones around the square and the cute messages on the ground,” Lori Caviness said.
The bear hunt has continued to grow since the idea was brought to community members. Chesnei Thomas, a former adjunct instructor at Northwestern, took her daughters on a hunt and they were able to find over 100 bears in around an hour.
Thomas said the amount of people participating in this event speaks to how great the community is.
The Bradt’s Menagerie, located west of town, joined in the fun by creating a giant bear out of hay bales. Their bear is equipped with a painted face, paws and even ears.
The Menagerie encourages parents to bring their children out to hunt the bear and pose for a photo.
The bear hunt also helped to fuel the idea behind the Alva Kid’s and Police Officer’s town-wide scavenger hunt. This activity included the same concept, but with any and all stuffed animals, lawn ornaments and window decorations.
“Alva community members are always stepping up to fill the gap of whatever need there is,” Thomas said. “In this case, it’s a fun activity for families to do together. Whether it’s the bear hunt, making sure blessing boxes are full, coming out during the teacher parade and everything in between, Alva has a way of showing up.”