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1. Happy Easter to everyone. I've got a little history of Easter egg hunts, and some crafty tips for decorating your Easter eggs.
2. Last week's Flock Spotlight, Jackie Vasquez-Lapan, along with her husband Dr. David Lapan are Giving Back to Jackie's alma mater by contributing to the renovation of the Sun Devils' softball stadium which Jackie played in during her college years.
3. Summer is almost here. In the Kid's Corner, I have my annual Summer Camp guide, which includes some local summer camps here in Tucson and resources for finding a summer camp anywhere in the US, Canada, and Europe.
4. Tuesday, April 22, is Earth Day. I've included a link to the official Earth Day website's event finder, where you can find Earth Day events near you, organize your events, and learn more about protecting Mother Earth.
5. The Hubble Space Telescope turns 35 next Thursday. I've been closing each Flock with an ESA/Hubble Image Gallery image for the past nine issues to celebrate.
6. Next Friday is Arbor Day; I have some background on how this day, which is dedicated to celebrating trees, became a holiday and an Arbor Day poem.
| | Now, to this week's Flock. | | 1. Easter Sunday: April 20, 2025 | | Last year, for Easter, I looked at the Easter Bunny's origins and how it became a symbol of the holiday. This year, I have some background on Easter eggs and how egg hunts became a tradition on Easter. | |
A history of the Easter egg hunt
Find out how this Easter tradition was hatched.
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Every Easter, children across the country rush around their homes and gardens searching for chocolate eggs. For many families Easter just isn't Easter without an egg hunt.
But why do we associate egg hunts with Easter? In this article, we explore where the Easter egg hunt originated and how it came to be a part of our Easter celebrations.
Why are eggs associated with Easter?
In many pre-Christian societies eggs held associations with spring and new life.
Early Christians adapted these beliefs, making the egg a symbol of the resurrection and the empty shell a metaphor for Jesus' tomb.
In the medieval period, eating eggs was forbidden during Lent, the 40 day period before Easter.
On Easter Sunday the fast ended with feasting and merriment, and eggs were considered an important part of these celebrations. This was especially true for poorer people who couldn't afford meat.
Eggs were also given to the church as Good Friday offerings, and villagers often gave eggs as gifts to the lord of the manor at Easter.
Royals got involved with this tradition too. In 1290, Edward I purchased 450 eggs to be decorated with colours or gold leaf and then distributed to his household.
Easter egg hunts from Germany
The custom of the Easter egg hunt, however, comes from Germany.
Some suggest that its origins date back to the late 16th century, when the Protestant reformer Martin Luther organised egg hunts for his congregation.
The men would hide the eggs for the women and children to find.
This was a nod to the story of the resurrection, in which the empty tomb was discovered by women.
| | The following post from Southern Living offers some great alternatives to off-the-shelf dye kits for decorating Easter eggs. Unique artistic results can be achieved by using household items, products from your local craft shop, and natural dyes made from fruits and vegetables | |
21 Easter Egg Ideas That Are Oh-So-Cute And Easy
We're showing off our creative side with some new Easter egg ideas that go beyond traditional dyes and store-bought kits.
| | Although there's always room in our baskets for traditionally dyed eggs, this Easter, we're showing off our creative side with some new egg ideas for your Easter basket. Ready to ditch traditional supermarket dye kits? We've rounded up inexpensive, easy, and adorable Easter egg ideas you can create at home. Try new colors and patterns, get the kids involved, and enjoy a fun DIY afternoon. From marbled eggs and speckled shells to Mod Podge and gilded gold, take your Easter egg-stravaganza to the next level. Here are some creative ways to color your eggs—just in time to impress the Easter bunny. | | |
Marbled Easter Eggs
These marbled eggs use one of our favorite beauty products: nail polish. To make them, simply add room temperature water to a disposable plastic container and pour in a few drops of nail polish. Feel free to mix up different colors of polish (we used blue and white here) and swirl with a plastic fork. Drop in one egg and give it a swirl or two before lifting out and placing on your drying carton. Repeat with the remainder of your eggs, adding a few more drops of polish to the water as necessary between eggs.
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2. Giving Back: A Champion's Gift
| | Last week, I put Jackie Vasquez-Lapan in the Flock Spotlight to highlight her recent success in the USTA NTRP National Championship. Shortly after sending out last week's Flock, I ran into this article from ASU News and knew I would have to include Jackie again this week. Jackie never stops amazing me in everything she does! | | A champion's gift: Donation from former Sun Devil helps renovate softball stadium | From: ASU News, By: Scott Bordow, April 1, 2025 | | |
Jackie Vasquez-Lapan can hear the words today as clearly as she did 17 years ago.
In 2008, Vasquez-Lapan was an outfielder on Arizona State University’s national championship-winning softball team, and then-coach Clint Myers often motivated his players with a six-word exhortation:
"Greatness is a way of life."
Vasquez-Lapan digested those six words and understood: You can’t be great if you’re not giving back.
So, when Vasquez-Lapan and her husband, David Lapan, were approached by Sun Devil Athletics in 2021 and asked to help raise money for a facilities renovation at Alberta B. Farrington Stadium, they didn’t hesitate.
Their seven-figure donation resulted in the Jackie Vasquez Softball Center, a renovation that included a player’s lounge, an expanded and updated locker room, coaches’ offices and the Lapan Sunshine Devil Deck, a rooftop entertainment area stationed down the left field line.
“I think being an alumnus of a university is one thing, but being a student-athlete alumni is different,” Vasquez-Lapan said. “You bled for the school. You cried for the school. You gave everything. … I’m one of those people. … I’ll tell you: I would not be who I am if it wasn’t for ASU athletics.”
| | 3. Kid's Corner: Annual Summer Camp Guide | | Since the first issue of the Flock in May 2022, I've been posting a yearly Summer Camp Guide with resources for finding a summer camp locally, nationally, and internationally. | | | | |
Tucson JCC Camp J
May 27 – July 25
Camp J provides an intentional summer experience where all campers can discover, learn, and grow. We take pride in the life skills campers inherently learn through play, organized activities, and highlighted Jewish values.
visit website »
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Tucson Racqurt & Fitness Club Summer Camp
May 27 – August 1
Our dedication to excellence has resulted in one of the most successful camp programs in the country producing thousands of happy campers. We look forward to seeing you for one of many exciting Camps at The Tucson Racquet & Fitness Club!
visit website »
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Tucson Village Farm Camps 2025
Tucson Village Farm, a program of the Pima County Cooperative Extension and the University of Arizona, offers Farm, Culinary, Art, and Adventure Camps for youths and young adults ages 5 -19.
visit website »
| | Follow the link below for a comprehensive listing of arts, sports, academic, and specialty summer camps in Tucson. | | Follow the link below for WorldCamps' Regional listings of Summer Camps across the United States, Canada, and Europe. | | 4. Earth Day: April 22, 2025 | | Next Tuesday, April 22nd, is Earth Day. Like I posted last year, The link below will take you to an interactive map where you can find Earth Day events near you, organize your events, and learn more about environmental initiatives being promoted this Earth Day. | | |
In the decades leading up to the first, Americans were consuming vast amounts of leaded gas through massive and inefficient automobiles. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of the consequences from either the law or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Until this point, mainstream America remained largely oblivious to environmental concerns and how a polluted environment threatens human health.
However, the stage was set for change with the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries as it raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and the inextricable links between pollution and public health.
Groups that had been fighting individually against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness and the extinction of wildlife united on Earth Day around these shared common values. Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, urban dwellers and farmers, business and labor leaders.
By the end of 1970, the first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of other first-of-their-kind environmental laws, including the National Environmental Education Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Clean Air Act. Two years later congress passed the Clean Water Act.
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5. Hubble's 35th Birthday: April 24, 2025
| | Eagle Nebula's Pillars of Creation | | Since its commission 35 years ago, the Hubble Space Telescope has been an invaluable scientific tool and delivered some of our universe's most stunning images ever captured. | |
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
| | Throughout the history of science, revolutionary instruments propel our understanding with their landmark discoveries. The Hubble Space Telescope is a testament to that concept. Its design, technology and serviceability have made it one of NASA's most transformative observatories. From determining the atmospheric composition of planets around other stars to discovering dark energy, Hubble has changed humanity's understanding of the universe. | |
6. Arbor Day: April 25, 2025
| | Next Friday, April 25th, is Arbor Day, the national celebration of Trees. While Arbor Day is closely associated with Earth Day, it is the older of the two "environmental" holidays. The holiday is celebrated by planting trees or by simply getting outside and appreciating them. | | |
What Is Arbor Day?
The origins of Arbor Day date back to the early 1870s in Nebraska City, Nebraska. A journalist by the name of Julius Sterling Morton moved to the state with his wife, Caroline, in 1854, a little more than 10 years before Nebraska gained its statehood in 1867. The couple purchased 160 acres in Nebraska City and planted a wide variety of trees and shrubs in what was a primarily a flat stretch of desolate plain.
Morton also became the editor of the state’s first newspaper, Nebraska City News, which was a perfect platform for Morton to spread his knowledge of trees… and to stress their ecological importance to Nebraska. His message of tree life resonated with his readers, many of whom recognized the lack of forestation in their community. Morton also became involved with the Nebraska Board of Agriculture.
On January 7, 1872, Morton proposed a day that would encourage all Nebraskans to plant trees in their community. The agriculture board agreed, and after some back-and-forth about the title—the event was originally going to be called “Sylvan Day” in reference to forest trees—Morton convinced everyone that the day should reflect the appreciation of all trees, and “Arbor Day” was born.
“Other holidays repose upon the past; Arbor Day proposes for the future.”
— Julius Sterling Morton
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The Heart of the Tree
By Henry Cuyler Bunner 1855–1896
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What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants cool shade and tender rain,
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest’s heritage;
The harvest of a coming age;
The joy that unborn eyes shall see—
These things he plants who plants a tree.
| | These Flock regulars are always here for you: | | Don't Be Shy: Share Your Stories! | | I'm looking forward to sharing more of your personal stories - oral, written, or otherwise, as we enter our third year. I'd so love to present them to The Flock, hit a mailbox below to share your story. | | Subscriptions & Idea Submissions
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Your fan and friend,
Beth
| | | The information and materials contained or referenced in this newsletter are for informational purposes only and not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a physician or other qualified medical professional with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before beginning a new health care regimen. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking medical advice or care based on anything contained in this newsletter. | | | | |
