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Easter bonnet contest will precede this years annual Easter Egg Hunt Local ‘chicks’ hope to make this Easter a hoppin’ suc- cess! For many years, Scugog residents have been hop- ping downtown to enjoy Port Perry’s annual Easter Egg, Hunt, generously sponsored by Ken Koury from The Nutty Chocolatier. This year, with Ken’s blessing, a new women’s group called “Church Chicks United” (CCU), from Port Perry United Church, have come up with a plan to enhance the yearly egg-hunt. Pam Hollett arrived in Port Perry from New York City three years ago. Her village always enjoyed an annual Eas- ter bonnet competition that brought joy to both young and old and quickly became a cherished tradition. She missed it very much and wondered if the contest could be possible in Port Perry. When she witnessed the happy enthusiasm displayed at our annual tree-lighting ceremony, she felt it just might work. “I was blown away the first time I went to the tree lighting ceremony at Christmas. I mean live reindeer- how cool! Everyone was just so into it!” states Pam. Being a three time winner of the annual scarecrow competition further encouraged the idea of an Easter Bonnet contest, as Pam has witnessed first-hand the artistic skills of glue-gun wielding Scugog residents! Amy Killeen has been a lifelong resident of Scugog and is currently a teacher of French-immersion. Both she and Pam are members of the enthusiastic ‘CCU’ and the group is working hard to make this event a success. Amy, having worked for Ken at the Nutty Chocolatier in her youth, approached him with their plan. “Ken has cre- ated a Port Perry tradition that everyone looks forward to each year. Ken couldn't have been more excited about our idea. He said he had always imagined it as a community event and said he would support us in any way.” says Amy. The CCU is made up of local women, from different walks of life and in different stages in their lives. “Some of 6 FOCUS - MARCH 2010 us are multi-tasking moms and some of us aren’t. Some of us go to the office, to school or to the hospital to work and others of us find we never leave our work because our job is at home. We're similar and different, but share in a sister- hood of feeling like there never seems to be enough time to do it all,” state both Amy and Pam emphatically. The women got together and decided to form a social group for fun and to try to give back to the community and hoped to come up with a great idea for their first commu- nity outreach project; thus the bonnet competition was born! Their goal was to add another dimension to the beloved Easter Egg Hunt while raising money to help the Scugog Memorial Library Expansion Project-Children’s and Teen’s are a. Residents are encouraged to dig out an old hat, along with any combination of feathers, glitter, ribbons and the like and decorate it...the crazier the better! Young and not- so-young are asked to gather in front of the post office at twelve noon, wearing your creation on April fourth, Easter Sunday. “It is our hope that this too becomes a fun Port Perry annual tradition,” Pam says. The Easter bonnets will be judged by prominent local citizens in the following categories: - Most Original Hat (over 12) - Most Original Hat (under 12) - Most Traditional (over 12) - Most Traditional (under 12) - Best Bloomin’ Hat - Most Delicious