Local Cafe Owner and Manager Become Easter Bunnies

Sharon Knight normally spends her workday at Tumble Beans Cafe and Play in Medway, of which she is the owner. A cafe with a play space (ball pit included) and a kids’ birthday party room, Tumble Beans remains a local favorite with both parents and youngsters. However, the coronavirus makes throwing a bunch of kids in a ball pit a little… impractical. The cafe was left with one question: How can we keep kids happy and business rolling?

Knight teamed up with Tumble Beans General Manager Katie Harevich to create a new and safe way to reach kids and their families. The two kid experts decided to give kids a personal visit from the Easter bunny. For a few weeks, they dressed up as Easter bunnies and arrived in lawns holding baskets and hiding eggs.

So how did Knight come up with such a creative idea?

“We understand who our customer is,” she said. She knows lots of parents are looking for a break during quarantine, and she wanted to “give them that break.”

A noble cause, but not without struggles. Knight had to switch her business from a dine-in cafe and kids’ party venue to an Easter bunny-and-basket delivery service. “We had never done anything like this before,” she said with a laugh. “We’re not a delivery company, and we had to become one overnight.” After Knight and Harevich figured out logistics, they set off to the homes of over 600 families in the area.

The trips caused a lot of laughs. They discovered they showed up at a few houses who definitely didn’t order the Easter bunny. One time, as Knight’s husband drove her to a house (the bunny head makes seeing the road a bit difficult), a Bellingham police officer neared their car. She sat thinking, “What did we do wrong?” But the officer only wanted to take a peek at the bunny. Harevich encountered construction workers who got “just as excited to see the Easter bunny as two-year-olds.” “We were celebrities for a little while,” Harevich added.

The mobile bunny service also offered some really touching rewards to the two bunnies.

“I didn’t realize how emotional this would be for families,” Knight said. Harevich said, “We got a lot of heartfelt messages. People were cooped up for weeks, and we provided them a little sigh of relief.”

Look out for more creative stunts from Sharon Knight and Katie Harevich!

Anna Sheehan ’21, Faith Editor 

21asheehan@montroseschool.org