How one Lexington neighborhood found a way to have fun with kids amid coronavirus
Many parents have looked for ways to keep their families occupied on forced coronavirus breaks from school, day care and other normal routines. One Lexington father’s idea quickly spread to many houses in a very short time.
Andrew Dieruf, in an effort to keep his 4-and-6-year-old daughters active and entertained, set up a stuffed animal scavenger hunt by getting neighbors to put the “craziest stuffed animals that each of us had in our windows.” He and his daughters and other families then went searching to find as many as they could. He hoped to get around 10 houses to participate.
He started on Sunday, and on Monday, he already had more than 50 houses participating.
“I mentioned it to my neighbors, and they asked if they could join, and they sent it to people they knew, and now we have about 50 houses in the Chevy Chase area,” Dieruf said.
Dieruf set the scavenger hunt up on a Google map. He said at one point he was getting a new text message every minute, with neighbors asking to add their houses to the list. He didn’t expect the activity to get anywhere near as popular as it did.
His hope was to make the hunt about a mile long to make it a good walk. He said he thinks it’s grown too long to walk the whole route in one outing.
Rachel Walsh, one of Dieruf’s neighbors, said she thought it was a great reason to get out of the house.
“The neighborhood really jumped on it,” Walsh said. “I think that’s just sort of evidence that we’re all looking for something to do and a connection with each other.”
Walsh’s 7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter really took to the scavenger hunt, as they participated Sunday and wanted to again Monday.
“They were all about picking out the animal to go in the window, and going around to wave to friends,” she said.
A lot of the children in the neighborhood go to school together, so they liked the opportunity to say hi to each other, Walsh said. Walsh said she had seen families biking and driving through the neighborhood looking for the stuffed animals throughout the day Monday.
Dieruf said he will at least try to keep the hunt going through Sunday, or people can leave out animals however long they want as businesses continue to shut down during the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s just good old wholesome fun in a weird time,” he said.
This story was originally published March 23, 2020 at 5:47 PM.