LEXINGTON, Ky. — For the past two years, Easter celebrations have been impacted by the pandemic. Saturday morning, families drove through the parking lot of Eastland Church of God for some Easter weekend celebrations.

“This year we really wanted to invite the community back to come and be a part of this event. And so we decided that the safest and best way to do it is a drive-thru so no one really has to get out of their car unless of course, they want to take a picture with Easter Bunny,” said Mindy Dennis, Family Life Pastor at Eastland Church of God.

Dennis said last year due to the pandemic, the church scrambled to put something together for Easter weekend. This year she made sure Easter celebrations brought some normalcy to her community. 

“Before we would normally have about 12,000 eggs that we put out on the front lawn. And we would have inflatables and a petting zoo. But of course, once COVID Hit we were not able to do that and it was so hard to figure things out at the last minute so last year we really did something very different and took eggs to homes and said you've been egged, and left them on the front door,” Dennis said.

The drive-thru event included four different stations. The first two stops included eggs filled with toys and candy, the third table with Easter devotionals, and lastly a visit with the Easter bunny. 

“We wanted to do something that was closer to what is what they normally get a chance to do, and even though it's modified a bit, we felt like it's important that we try to add some normalcy to their lives and help them to celebrate Easter, which is the beginning of spring and all the great stuff that comes with that,” Dennis said.

The church staff handed out and created over 400 packets of eggs to the children and families who came through the drive-thru.