A bear looks out a window as part of a “bear hunt“ in the Eastern Hills neighborhood in Kalamazoo. The hunt is one of several creative activities for kids that have surfaced during the coronavirus shutdown.

Nearly two weeks after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered schools closed and just days after ordering residents to stay home to prevent the spread coronavirus, animals began to take over the Eastern Heights neighborhood near Gull Road in Kalamazoo.

On Friday afternoon there we around three dozen, mostly bears. By Saturday the number had almost doubled to nearly 60.

The bear hunt was on.

As kids and their parents find themselves stuck home for increasingly long stretches during a time that would normally see them in school or work and pining for spring break, cabin fever has taken its hold, leading some to come up with creative ideas to keep families active. The bear hunt, in which residents of a neighborhood place stuffed animals in the street-facing windows of their houses for kids to seek out and count on neighborhood walks, is one such idea.

Eastern Hills residents, from left to right, Simon Ehmke, 4, grandmother Beryl Hostetter, mother Autumn Hostetter and Oliver Ehmke, 7, brave the rain to enjoy a bear hunt Saturday afternoon.

Outside and excited

Eastern Heights resident Carla Verbrugge has six grandkids and a seventh on the way, and often takes walks with them around the neighborhood circle. She’d heard about the bear hunt activity on the news and social media — including from a post on the neighborhood’s Nextdoor page on Thursday — and had seen a handful of bears in some neighbors’ windows.

On Friday morning she decided to run with the idea, printing up more than 50 flyers encouraging neighbors to participate in the hunt and distributing them throughout the neighborhood.

“Beginning today, Friday, March 27, and throughout this next week, let’s all put one or several stuffed bears in our windows,” the flyer said. “When we take our kids for a walk they will have the task of searching for bears! Just something to do with our kids or grandkids while we are all confined and going stir-crazy!”

Verbrugge was quick to point out the activity wasn’t her original idea — “I just took off with it,” she said — but she hopes that it inspires families to be active at a time when they might otherwise be stuck indoors and bored.

“It’s really easy to sit inside and focus on TV and the virus and worry,” Verbrugge said. “I just hope that parents get outside with their kids and get excited.”

By Saturday afternoon, nearly 60 stuffed animals had been placed in windows all around the neighborhood.

“It’s pretty fun”

Despite a storm-filled night that dragged into a rainy morning, Eastern Heights resident Autumn Hostetter was out for a walking bear hunt with her two sons, Oliver Ehmke, 7, and Simon Ehmke, 4, and her mother, Beryl Hostetter, Saturday afternoon. Autumn and her husband had been out the night before and noticed several bears, and she decided to bring the boys out to count them that day, she said.

So far they’d counted 11, according to Oliver.

Autumn, an associate professor of psychology at Kalamazoo College, is among the parents usually working during the week who’ve been stationed at home due to the coronavirus shutdown. Like many educators, she’s in the process of transitioning her classes online.

It’s particularly nice at times like these to get outside the house to exercise, she said, and the bear hunt is a welcome addition.

“We’re enjoying the fresh air, and the bear hunt is just a great way to have something to do on our walk,” Hostetter said. “It’s something new and different to look for.”

Oliver agreed.

“It’s pretty fun,” he said.

His favorite sighting so far was a multicolored bear in the window of a nearby brick house.

“I just like how it’s rainbow,” he said.

Handmade cards Verbrugge made to send to the girls in the youth group she usually leads on Wednesday nights. The group has been separated for the past few weeks due to the coronavirus shutdown.

Finding a purpose

For Verbrugge, the bear hunt is among the many activities she’s been planning to fulfill a goal to “find a purpose” every day of the coronavirus shutdown.

Earlier this week, she biked to visit one of her granddaughters, and on Friday she delivered several handmade face masks to the West Michigan Cancer Center, where she’d worked for several years as a transcriptionist.

Now she’s in the process of sending knitted hats and handmade cards to the girls in the youth group she usually leads on Wednesday nights that she’s been separated from these past few weeks, and she’s also celebrating the completion of her sister-in-law’s chemotherapy treatments.

Like many during these unprecedented times of social isolation, she’s doing her best to stay occupied and productive, she said.

“Every day I make a list of something to do that’s outside of this house,” she said. “Or worrying about the virus.”

Simon A. Thalmann is a writer and photographer based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He can be reached at simon.a.thalmann@gmail.com.