A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Residents and businesses around town are getting into a movement to display bears, Easter eggs and art in windows and doors and porches facing the street so the influx of walkers can enjoy discovering them as they pass by. Isaac and Sophia Abell, ages 9 and 6, created a snowman in Cloquet with a splash of food coloring. The Pine Knot News and a number of our local advertisers want to encourage more people to join in the fun with their own window displays. Check out the coloring page on Page 10 of this week's paper. Happy hunting.
Cloquet child care provider Judy Sanda has her bear safely buckled into a chair on her front lawn.
Kim Buskala had some art on display at her Cloquet home.
Library director Beth Sorenson holds a copy of the book by Michael Rosen that inspired the "bear hunt" trend while children's librarian Keiko Satomi holds a teddy bear with more in the library window behind them. Jana Peterson
Amidst all the fear and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus, there's a movement afoot to make life more fun, more beautiful, or both.
Suddenly, there are bears - of the stuffed variety or two-dimensional, not hungry-just-out-of-hibernation live ones - appearing in windows and on porches in Cloquet and beyond. It's not limited to bears, though. Other windows feature Easter eggs or original artworks for all the world to see as people walk or ride past homes, businesses and even City Hall.
Cloquet children's librarian Keiko Satomi said the library heard about communities around the world that were holding neighborhood "bear hunts" in this time of social distancing. Inspired by the picture book "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen, Satomi said homes across the world are placing stuffed bears, animals, and drawings of bears and rainbows in windows for kids and families to find when they are on a walk or a drive.
Unknown to Satomi, Cloquet Community Education was already doing something similar. Although the annual Easter Egg Hunt had to be canceled due to the ban on large gatherings, Community Ed found an alternative: a visual hunt for Easter eggs taped to windows and doors.
"It's easy. No human contact. Get fresh air. Just put an Easter egg in your window," organizers suggested.
"Kids and their parents, or whoever, can hunt for eggs or bears or some other cheerful thing," Satomi said. "It makes a walk even more fun."
Isaac and Sophia Abell, ages 9 and 6, decided to make their whole front yard their artistic offering to the world by using food coloring and water to paint the snow and a snowman they created. The Abell family is also participating in the bear hunt: they have at least one on the porch and two in the window facing Prospect Avenue.
Like any good idea, things kepts snowballing. Local artist Kim Buskala suggested people share art for all ages "like a walkabout gallery."
"In these trying times I do believe creativity is an outlet to relieve the pain we are feeling and an opportunity to take our mind off the problem," Buskala said. "What better way to express ourselves than through the arts. Whether it be dancing, drawing, writing, singing ... the list goes on."
She also suggested that this time at home could be used to foster art for everyone, including kids, who don't get as much time for art in school as they might like. "I think allowing kids and adults to think outside the box and get creative and have the courage to display it, is an opportunity we should embrace."
