The Charleston Police Department teamed up with the city parks department to hold a few pop-up Easter egg giveaways around the city during the lockdown, giving families impacted by the pandemic a chance to get outside and celebrate the holiday safely.
“It was just cute to see them and give them a little bit of the outside and have their sense of normalcy come back just for a quick second,” said Shylah Murray, CPD’s community oriented policing officer.
“We were maintaining good social distance through this … A lot of (the children) really want to give you a hug or a high five, so we gave virtual high fives.”
The first event was held April 7, and wrapped up April 9, before Good Friday. When all was said and done, police gave out about 6,000 of the 20,000 Easter eggs that had been planned for use in Charleston’s annual egg hunt at Hampton Park.
The idea was sparked when Murray and the parks department’s Crystal Reed realized there was still candy in the eggs and didn’t want any of that to go waste.
“Thank goodness for my community outreach team,” Murray said. “They were willing to go out into the community and do all this.”
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