Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
TWO-YEAR OLD Chase Van Winkle opens plastic Easter eggs while his grandmother, Nancy Heimburger of Springstead, watches at the Mercer Lions community Easter celebration Saturday at the school.
By STEVE NEWMAN
MERCER, Wis. - The Mercer Lions hosted its annual Easter Egg Hunt at the Mercer School Saturday morning to a happy crowd of parents and children. The event, which has been a tradition for many years, is planned throughout the year, with plastic Easter eggs all around the walls of the school lunch room and eggs hidden in the library for children and their families to find. In addition, there were tables with stuffed animals, plates of food and photos with the Easter bunny.
Mercer Lion Louise Minisan is the leader of the event and has lots of help from Lions Club members and young people who are part of the Mercer Leo Club at the school. Asked about the overwhelming amount of candy-filled Easter eggs around the building, Minisan said, "We want to make sure there's enough for everybody." She said that she seeks to buy the empty plastic eggs and stuffed rabbit toys on after-Easter specials and stores them in her house during the year and gets them out for the celebration.
Several of the Leos were helping out with food and at a table giving stuffed animals to any who wanted them. Minisan stated that there were over 40 students from the school in the Leo Club and that she appreciated their "bright ideas, attentiveness and eagerness to help." The Mercer club has been extremely active, according to Minisan. She gave the example of last Halloween's Candy Crush fundraiser put on by the Leos. The Mercer group raised more funds than any club in the state of Wisconsin toward the cause of childhood cancer detection.
According to Mercer Lions president Ike Pagh, the Leos are "real go-getters." "I'm so proud of these kids," he added. He gave further examples of the work of the Leos around Mercer. "The kids came up with the idea to clean all the headstones in the Mercer cemetery and did it." In addition, he mentioned funds the group is raising for even larger projects in the near future, with double-matching funds from the Lions. He particularly lauded Leos president and Mercer student Billie Botes, calling her "a natural leader."
The parents and families were very appreciative of the work that went into putting on the event. Nancy and John Heimburger of Springstead were there with their grandson, Chase Van Winkle. The couple moved to the area from Chicago and are excited to see their daughter and son-in-law choose to settle in Mercer after researching options in the area. "It's exciting to see what is happening here in Mercer," Nancy Heimburger said. "We really like the school here. For example, they say the Pledge of Allegiance here. That's something we never would see in Chicago."
Pagh cited the support of the people of Mercer for the ability to be generous with donations at the egg hunt. "We have outstanding support in the community. Just about everyone in town has contributed to this event."
