Chocolate bunny meltdown / Media hops all over Walnut Creek and its renamed egg hunt

When the great Easter Bunny hullabaloo hit Walnut Creek, it took nearly everyone by surprise.

Surely, city officials thought, this couldn't last. It would all blow over once people realized that they hadn't banned Easter, just renamed their annual kids' event a "Spring Egg Hunt" rather than an "Easter Egg Hunt."

"Honestly," Walnut Creek spokesman Brad Rovanpera said this week, "with all the things in the world to worry about, people are coming unglued over this?"

They are. And the reaction speaks less to the controversy about religion in the community -- it's just a rabbit, after all -- than the media's inclination to play into the simmering anger and resentment among Americans who are convinced their rights and privileges are being taken away.

In this case, you could call it a "hare-trigger" reaction.

Walnut Creek resident Michael Runzler wrote a letter to the editor complaining about "banning the Easter Bunny," and when it ran last week in the Contra Costa Times, the response was immediate.

"I heard from two Fox TV news shows in New York, KGO (news radio), Channel 7 (the ABC affiliate) and The Chronicle," Rovanpera says. "I did most of the interviews, but I turned down Fox in New York. They wanted me to go to a studio in Oakland on Sunday, and I never miss '60 Minutes.' "

And who would have thought that would be just the start of it? This week, Runzler appeared on Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes" national news show, clips from which were then picked up by "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central.

Stephen Colbert, whose character is a humorous parody of conservative talk-show hosts, billed his segment "Easter Under Attack," and specifically mentioned Walnut Creek. Colbert added a tongue-in-cheek warning "to keep your eyes open and your marshmallow Peeps close to your chest."

"That," says Runzler, "is when we knew we had a bunny by the tail. When I sent a letter to the editor I never imagined it would get this kind of response."

No kidding.

In a way, the whole fuss is utterly predictable. Fox commentators struck a national nerve last year when they mounted a campaign against those who substituted "Season's Greetings" for "Merry Christmas." So the image of an Easter Bunny getting frog-marched out of town was perfect for stirring up emotions.

There are, however, a few problems.

For starters, Walnut Creek isn't banning Easter. They've just changed the name of their traditional egg hunt. Nor, despite Runzler's fears, are they removing the familiar fuzzy rabbit.

"We still have the bunny," city spokesman Rovanpera says. "We just rebranded the event. We did it five years ago and until last week nobody even knew or cared."

And by the way, about that bunny.

"I'm not going to defend the Easter Bunny or eggs," says the Rev. Kevin Murphy, whose St. Matthew Lutheran Church is one of the largest in Walnut Creek and is just a few blocks from the annual egg hunt. "In my congregation, Easter egg hunts don't have a blessed thing to do with Easter, which is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"And by the way," Murphy adds, "rabbits don't lay eggs."

Details, details.

Still, Walnut Creek city officials, who changed the name of the event to avoid spending public money for something that could be construed as religious, are thunderstruck to be suddenly cast as radicals with a runaway social agenda.

"It is absolutely amazing," says Mayor Sue Rainey. "The thing is, it happened five years ago. This is ridiculous."

And the sleepy, tree-lined East Bay suburb hardly deserves to be singled out for national attention. You'd be hard-pressed to find a city that hasn't renamed its Easter egg hunt.

By Rovanpera's unofficial count, no fewer than eight towns surrounding Walnut Creek -- from Brentwood to Danville -- host an event with some kind of egg-related name that does not mention Easter.

In fact, Todd Trimble, who works with Rovanpera at the Heather Farms Park, where one of the two egg hunts on April 7 will be held, says he used to work in Pleasanton, which "changed the name a good 10 years ago."

Across the bay, San Mateo has staged its Eggstravaganza for years.

Up in Marin, San Rafael has an Alice in Wonderland Spring Festival and not only suggests that you bring your own eggs, but that you hide them yourself, too.

Not that any of that information stopped the protests. Runzler has created a Web site -- defend www.theeasterbunny.com -- which he says got 1,300 views in the first day and a half. And Rovanpera is now getting angry letters.

"When you start to destroy the common culture of a nation," one person wrote, "you begin to destroy the nation, little by little."

Another woman called Rovanpera and told him she had planned to bring her 4-year-old niece to the egg hunt, but now was going to refuse to allow her to come, in protest. Rovanpera could only think of one thing to say.

"How sad for the little girl," he replied.

Oh yeah, kids and candy eggs. Wasn't that what this was supposed to be about in the first place?

Bay Area egg hunts

Here are some of the egg hunts scheduled in Bay Area cities before Easter, which falls on April 8:

Walnut Creek: April 7, Spring Egg Hunts for preschoolers through fifth-graders at 10:15 a.m., Heather Farm Park, 1750 Heather Drive, and Larkey Park, Buena Vista Avenue at First Avenue. $5 per person. For more information, call (925) 943-5858 or go to ci.walnut-creek.ca.us.

San Rafael: April 7, Alice in Wonderland Spring Festival from 2 to 4 p.m., Falkirk Cultural Center, 1408 Mission Ave. $5 per person; babies in arms free. For more information, call (415) 485-3327 go to cityofsanrafael.org.

San Mateo: April 7, Eggstravaganza from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Central Park, El Camino Real and East Fifth Avenue. For more information, call (650) 522-7470 or go to cityofsanmateo.org.