THE STORY OF OUR EASTER BUNNY

Can you believe we are almost in April, already?! It seems like just yesterday we were preparing our trucks with plows for the upcoming winter. Well folks, we made it through the cold months and now have sunshine to look forward to! Easter Sunday was a gorgeous day in our beautiful city, with temperatures being as high as they’ve been all year. Gorgeous weather on a holiday, it doesn’t get much better then that!

At the end of my last post, I had mentioned the picture of the Easter Bunny posing near one of our trucks. That picture was actually from Easter of 2015, just about a year ago. Well, the Easter Bunny made another appearance this past weekend.

There’s something you need to know about my father Dave, the founder of Stockman Lawnscape. While on the outside, he’s tough and rugged, what most people don’t see is that he is one of the most caring and loving people I have ever met. He would give you the shirt off his back, without hesitation. So each year, when he gets into character as the Easter Bunny, it’s amazing to watch the transformation from being that hard working, tough guy, into the Easter Bunny, hopping around taking pictures with young kids and holding babies. In the days leading up to the event, he becomes more and more excited. He’s always at the event, bright and early, helping to setup and hide the eggs. As the event becomes closer to the start time, Dave gets serious again. The best way I can describe it is like pregame for an athlete about to take the field. I know, that sounds crazy, right?

The Easter Egg Hunt is something that I look forward too each year. We love participating within the communities we serve and we’d like to do even more. See, we all grew up here, my mother included. This is home for us and always has been. Knowing you only get out what you put in, we are focused on doing our part to improve our communities.

Family is the most important thing in life, in my opinion. We are a family run business and that means a lot to us. There has to be a switch we flip between family and business, which can get tough at times. However, we make separate time for non business related activities. That’s one thing we stress to our team members, as well. Because family is so important to us, a few years ago, we switched our work schedules around for our team. We wanted them to be able to spend time with their family, while working enough to provide for them, as well. Our schedule now consists of 4 work days, with Friday through Sunday as off days for our team to be able to be with family and friends. It’s important in this crazy world to make time for that, please don’t forget it!

There’s a police siren off in the distance. Kids are surrounding the areas where the eggs are hidden under scattered straw, waiting impatiently. You see the police car coming around the corner, providing the escort for one of our trucks. As they get closer, you see Dave in the bed of the truck, in full Easter Bunny mode, ready to greet the kids. As he gets out of the truck, it begins. Kids are running up to him and hugging the Easter Bunny, while some run away scared. As the Easter Bunny posing for hundreds of pictures, chaos ensues when the kids are allowed to find the eggs. The event is over quick, as the kids find all the candy and eggs within minutes. However, Dave stays in character, taking pictures with every single kid or adult that wants one, until everyone has left. Another successful year in the books and huge smiles all around afterwards.

Dave did a fantastic job again this year. He truly is one of a kind and a wonderful, selfless person. I have a few pictures from the event that I want to share with you. Hopefully you all found this holiday to be filled with wonderful times with your family. I know that we did and I look forward to that every year.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan Stockman

PS – I promise we will get into landscaping topics on the next post!