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By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer

Easter this year will look different amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but local churches are organizing social-distancing-oriented activities for families to enjoy together.

LakeHills Church in Calera is inviting families to reserve free LHKIDS Easter packets to pick up for their children.

Each packet includes crayons, Easter coloring books and five Easter eggs filled with candy and toys.

Along with the kids’ packs, families may pick up pre-sealed communion cups and wafers to participate in communion from home during the church’s online Good Friday service.

To reserve packets and communion cups, and to select a pickup time, go to the LakeHills Church Facebook page and select “Get Tickets” on the “Kid’s Easter Pack and Communion Pick-up” event.

“We believe Easter represents hope, and we want our community to be able to celebrate Easter with their families in a fun and safe way this year,” the event description read. “We have a dedicated team who will be following strict protocols to safely put these packs together and then handled by distributors wearing masks and gloves to get them safely to you in your vehicle.”

Packets and communion materials can be picked up in the church parking lot via a drive-thru service on April 9 and April 10.

Columbiana United Methodist Church is inviting families to participate in its 2020 Social Distancing Easter Egg Hunt.

Those who want to participate can go by the church to pick up Easter egg coloring sheets from a box on the church’s front porch.

Children and their family members may color their eggs at home and display them in a window facing the street.

Send an email to admin@columbianaumc.com to let the church know your eggs are on display, and include the address. Then, watch for a list of locations by area for the “hidden” Easter eggs.

Families can walk, bike or drive around to hunt for the colorful eggs.

Union the Church at Chelsea Park is sponsoring a similar activity, called the Chelsea Community Virtual Easter Egg Hunt.

Those who want to participate may go to the church’s Facebook page and mark “Going” or “Interested” on the Virtual Easter Egg Hunt event.

Then, print out the Easter egg coloring page at Iowaegg.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Easter-Egg-HuntColoring-Contest.pdf.

Children may color, paint and decorate their eggs. Then, parents can take a picture of the egg drawings and post them to the church’s egg hunt event page with #ChelseaEggColoring (this counts as one entry in the participation drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card).

Eggs should be displayed where they are visible from the outside of homes or businesses.

Families can go on a walk or drive on April 10-12 to look for and take pictures of the eggs.

In one post, share the pictures of the eggs your family found and the total count to the event page wall using #ChelseaEggHunt (number of pictures and total count must be the same).

The top three families that find the most eggs will be awarded a prize. A participation drawing will be held for all participants.

The prizes are: a $50 Amazon gift card for first place, a $30 Dominos gift card for second place and a $20 iTunes gift card for third place.

For more information on these and other Easter events, visit churches’ websites and social media pages.