MASSENA - The Easter Bunny will be making his annual visit to Massena starting on Friday, arriving in its spring garden at 11 a.m. to greet children for the next two weeks leading up to Easter

“And while there aren’t yet flowers outside, St. Lawrence Centre Marketing Manager Ronald J. Patnode said the Easter Bunny’s arrival means they’re not far behind.

“The arrival of the Easter Bunny is in some ways the arrival of spring,” he said, adding more and more children have made visits to the famous rabbit each year.

“Visits to the Easter Bunny are becoming more and more popular,” Mr. Patnode said. “We’ve seen visits to the Easter Bunny increase every year.”

More and more people are also bringing in their pets to be photographed with the Easter Bunny. In the past, the mall would host a few evenings during the season for people to bring in their pets. This year Mr. Patnode said they’ll be hosting two pet “days” in addition to two pet nights.

Pet days will be held from noon to 8 p.m. March 27 and 28, with pet nights being held from 6 to 8 p.m. March 22 and 29. Children may visit during these times, but pets will not be permitted on non-designated days.

The Easter Bunny will be available from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays from March 15-30 and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.

The Easter Bunny will also be available noon to 8 p.m. on March 27 and 28 for Pet Days.

A free onlline coloring book celebrating the Easter Bunny’s arrival is available under the events tab of the mall’s website.

The arrival of the Easter Bunny also means the annual Easter egg hunt isn’t far behind.

“This year we’re going to do something a little bit different,” St. Lawrence Centre Marketing Assistant Lindsey S. Breitbeck said. “We’re doing a scavenger hunt.”

Explaining the decision, Ms. Breitbeck said it’s hard to protect the eggs while registration is taking place.

“In the past while people were registering children would be running around taking the eggs,” she said.

The scavenger hunt, with children broken into teams, will guarantee all children receive some eggs.

“They’ll be sent on a mall-wide scavenger hunt,” she said. “They’ll be asked to bring back one item from each store that’s participating.”

The first team back with every item from their list will receive the most eggs with the second team receiving slightly fewer and so on.

“This will kind of offset what’s happened in previous years and encourage the children to work together as a team,” Ms. Breitbeck said.

Registration for the scavenger hunt will begin at 10 a.m. in the mall’s center court, with the event starting as soon as all children are registered.

“This is an event for all ages,” Ms. Breitbeck said, adding that each team will be made up children from different age groups.

On the web:

www.stlawrencecentre.com

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer