Last week, just before the state’s stay at home order was announced, the Easter Bunny toured many of Gardendale’s neighborhoods and subdivisions.

The bunny, otherwise known as Samantha Smith, was spreading a little joy to others and herself in anticipation of an Easter that isn’t going to look like previous Easters.

Smith is a kid’s hairstylist by trade and has three kids of her own. But when salons were closed a few weeks ago and she was forced to stay home all the time, Smith said she started to feel depressed by the grim news surrounding her.

Smith said she got the idea for an Easter Bunny visit from a post she saw about someone doing it elsewhere and told her family that someone should do it in Gardendale. Then her sister-in-law announced she had found a bunny costume.

“So ‘somebody’ became me,” Smith said with a laugh.

The idea was to just cruise around her neighborhood and make people smile and laugh, but then Smith realized that people outside her neighborhood could use some uplifting as well, so she decided to expand her plan.

In the end, Smith (driven by her brother-in-law) ended up touring most of Gardendale’s neighborhood on Friday and Saturday, because the demand for the bunny was so great.

“This has revived me,” Smith said. “ I just want to make kids happy. Just to see them happy and smiling makes my whole day.”

But it wasn’t all easy and fun, in addition to the physical demands of wearing the costume for hours in the heat, she also had trouble with not hugging the little kids, like she normally would.

“It’s hard dot play the fun bunny and maintain social distance,” Smith said. “That’s the hardest part—not being able to touch them or give them a hug.”