Wind in their hare

EVERETT – The Easter bunny rode into town Sunday on a big, black Harley.

When the motorcycle stopped, the big bunny jumped off and four small children ran up and gave the hare a hug.

It was hard to tell what excited the kids more – the Easter bunny, the rumble of more than 50 motorcycles or the toys the bikers brought with them.

0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%

00:00

Julie Busch / The Herald

Cody Locker, 7, of Everett gets a chance to check out Eric Buckmasters Harley Davidson Sunday at the Bunny Run for Tomorrows Hope Childcare Center in Everett.

For the fourth straight year, this unusual combination roared up to the Tomorrow’s Hope Childcare Center at 5910 Evergreen Way. Members of the Great Northwest chapter of the Harley Owners Group brought stuffed animals, toys, food, clothing and household items to Snohomish County families staying in housing provided by Housing Hope, a nonprofit agency.

More than 50 bikers and about 60 family members showed up for the event. The bikers started out at the Cycle Barn in Lynnwood, the club’s sponsor, and wound through Edmonds and Mukilteo before arriving in Everett at about 11 a.m.

The club has been bringing gifts to children the weekend before Easter for 12 years now, said member Maria Beebe of Woodinville, who organized this year’s “Bunny Run.”

“The kids just love it,” Beebe said.

“This is a lot of fun. I look forward to this every year,” said biker Rick Mitchell of Lynnwood.

Mitchell hoisted Cody Locker, 7, up onto his bike and let him honk the horn.

“It was good,” Cody said afterward. Then, the next biker did the same, and Cody tested the horn on that bike, and another, as well.

The Lynnwood-based motorcycle club draws from northern Snohomish County down to Seattle, and this year members of the Eastside Harley owners’ club joined them in the Bunny Run.

Eastside club member Bob Roberson passed out glass-ornament necklaces to several of the smaller children.

One was Emy Kerwin, 15 months. She liked the necklace, but she might have liked the motorcycles even more.

“Oh, she loves ‘em,” said her mom, Ashley Kerwin.

After meeting the kids and their families in the parking lot, the bikers took stuffed bunnies, bears, ducks and other critters inside and piled them onto a long table for the kids to go by and take their pick.

Housing Hope provides emergency, transitional and permanent housing, along with support services such as the child care center, to families in Snohomish County and on Camano Island. Many of the clients are single mothers.

The organization, which receives funding from a variety of sources, has 37 housing units on Evergreen Way and 15 complexes around the county, housing about 250 families. The child care center is the only one in the county licensed to serve homeless children, staff members say. It serves about 100 children, from Housing Hope and other shelters.

The Harley club bought about $150 in supplies, pitched in to donate about $250 in cash and individual members bought many of the toys on their own, Beebe said.

Members said the Ladies of Harley, the women’s branch of the Great Northwest Harley club, does a similar event around Mother’s Day every year at Pathways for Women YWCA, a shelter in Lynnwood.

Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.