In Lehigh Valley neighborhoods, rainbows and teddy bears bring smiles, sense of togetherness

Tricia Durham first started noticing the rainbows a few weeks ago as she took her young sons on walks around their Emmaus neighborhood.

Hand-colored arches began appearing on windows. Some were painted directly on window panes. There were rainbows on pinwheels, flags and a pair of rain boots.

Soon, Scott, 4, and Kelvin, 2, began looking out for them. A family game began.

“We try to go to different blocks. We look for rainbows. Their favorite part is counting them,” Durham said.

It’s not only rainbows. Durham and her sons have spotted teddy bears on porches and chalk drawings on sidewalks.

And it’s not just happening in Emmaus. Such displays are popping up all across the Lehigh Valley. Though still small in number, they evoke images of American flags that adorned houses after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the yellow ribbons that were tied on trees during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.

As COVID-19 has made normal child’s play a risky venture, play dates and birthday parties ended, team sports and music lessons curtailed. They’ve been replaced by daily family walks.

To make those walks more interesting, mothers with children too young to understand the deadly virus are dreaming up ways to foster togetherness.

Scavenger hunts

At Midway Manor in east Allentown, Melissa Seif Rogers, who has two sons, Dylan, 9, and Joshua, 7, started a word scavenger hunt. Through Facebook, she encouraged families to hang words on their doors and send her their word.

Twenty-eight did, with words that included “dream,” “hope,” “hero,” “kind” and “optimism.”

As children walked the neighborhood, they were asked to report their findings to her.

“My phone would keep ringing with people playing,” she said.

The winner found 24 words and received a gift card to Giant.

Now Rogers, through the Midway Manor Facebook page, is asking neighbors to hang pictures of Easter eggs ? an idea that is spreading across social media. For the Midway Manor hunt, eggs will have a number next to it so children can keep track of how many they find.

So far, there’s been an outpouring of interest, including at Meals on Wheels, which is hanging an egg at its Sherman Street warehouse. In addition, people and businesses are reaching out with donations for the winner.

Rogers said she is heartened by the support, but not surprised.

“Our neighborhood is so big in interacting with each other,” she said. “As soon as it’s nice out, everyone is outside talking. This just seems like a way of playing together and communicating with each other.”

Jokes and chalk bombings

Taylor Alexander, a mother of three, said she has been amazed at the imaginative ways people in her neighborhood near Calypso Elementary School in Bethlehem have come together through outdoor expressions.

She and her children, Henry, 8, Leo, 5, and Phoebe, 21 months, have seen teddy bears and stuffed animals of all kinds perched in windows.

Someone ? a child she suspects because of the handwriting ? is putting “little cute jokes” on telephone poles.

Alexander said children have begun doing “chalk bombings” — going to a friend’s house and leaving messages to show how much they miss them.

She credits the solidarity to the sense of community created at Calypso, where she serves as secretary of the Parents and Teachers of Calypso organization.

“I think everyone is just missing everyone and even the parents are missing everyone,” Alexander said. “This just helps keep the sense of community that the school worked hard for.”

Durham said she is grateful for the smiles the displays bring and the sense of togetherness they are creating in Emmaus.

“It’s been tough at home with the boys, trying to keep them entertained. It helps them feel connected to the neighborhood,” said Durham, who also has an older son, Odin Palasch, 17.

Durham said the displays are bringing people together at a time when they are being asked to stay apart.

“I think somehow this is bringing us more together than ever before. It just feels good in a way,” she said.

Alexander shares that sentiment.

“It’s a very weird situation to be in and to know that our sense of normal is never going back that way,” she said. “But it’s an opportunity to see how things can change for the good.”

Katherine Reinhard is a freelance writer for The Morning Call.

There are plenty of heroes emerging from the coronavirus crisis and we want to hear about them. If you know of a Hometown Hero, let us know at news@mcall.com and we’ll be happy to let the world know about them.