Mother, son duo ask ‘Let Us Egg Your Yard’

The Easter Bunny is getting some help this year. Nurse Amy Lewis and her 10-year old son Eli are offering a friendly “egging” of county residents’ yard for a fee to help raise funds for the Aurora Adopt-A-Pet animal shelter.
The mother-and-son duo are looking for people to reach out for them to place Easter eggs in the yard, up to 75 per house.
The desire to hop into egging was inspired at first by Eli’s wish to buy the video game “Pokemon Scarlet” when the fourth grader got the idea to fundraise from a teacher.
“My teacher did something where we did chores and raised money and donated it,” he recalled. “Some of it was to buy Christmas presents for families that couldn’t afford it, then the rest of it went to Aurora Adopt-A-Pet.”
His mother found the idea of egging from a friend’s wedding fundraiser with organizations, such as a cheerleading group, using the egg placement to raise cash. While originally it was to fund the video game, Amy stated that all the funds are now going to Adopt-A-Pet while the video game will be purchased by her after the fundraiser.
“I noticed that they have an Amazon wish list,” she stated. “This kid is an expert Amazon shopper, so we’ll have their wish list and see what we can get them off of that.”
The duo started a few weeks ago, advertising and preparing for the eventual egg blitz. Eli’s grandmother, Margene Taylor, donated 75 eggs to the cause, and the two have discussed what they plan to fill hollow plastic contraptions with.
“On the way here I was thinking, depending on how many kids they have, we could put a slap bracelet in a couple of eggs,” Eli said.
His mother elaborated that there may be candies such as fun-sized Snickers, Twix that could fit into the space.
Prices for eggs are $30 for 25 eggs, $55 for 50 eggs and $75 for 75 eggs, according to Amy.
“We stopped at 75 because that’s a lot of eggs,” she explained. “That would take you all day to find them.”
The area covered so far included one request from Grand Island and three in Aurora. Amy said that anyone in Hamilton County can request that eggs be nested in their yard on April 7 and April 8 before Easter Sunday.
“I want to make sure their kids aren’t going to be outside when we go do it,” she stated. “We need to come as it’s getting dark. I’m just hoping I can fit that all into the Friday and Saturday evening.”
Those interested can contact Amy via text at 308-380-9386 to set up details for when the egg drop can occur and to fill out a Google Sheet to answer questions. Examples include if they are dogs in the yard, whether the front or back yard should be covered and if their are any food allergies for participants.
“We haven’t filled the eggs yet,” she said. “(We) will probably do it together. I want to find out how many we need before I order bulk candy.”
As for Eli, he has learned a lot according to his mother about what goes into raising money for a cause.
“We’ve talked about, when taking the money that we make, you also have to figure out how much you’re going to spend, so that you’re gonna make enough money to either have a profit or have something to donate,” she said. “We’ve had a little bit of business education with that, which is pretty cool.”