Molly Pelic
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Virtual Easter Egg Hunt
John Weaver and Whitefish Assembly created a virtual Easter Egg hunt through their building, hiding more than 1,000 eggs in classrooms, entry spaces, hallways, and the sanctuary. This is a creative way to serve the community, engage with families, and share the Easter message in the midst of the Coronavirus quarantine.
View Whitefish Assembly’s Virtual Easter Egg Hunt here.
See the full list of Church Marketing University Coronavirus Easter Ideas here.
Why host a Virtual Easter Egg Hunt?
- To serve the community – kids all across the country are unable to go out and participate in Easter Egg hunts. This is a way for churches to provide Easter fun and share what Easter is all about
- To reach the world – as John Weaver put it, “there’s no walls, there’s no boundaries when it comes to virtual stuff like this.” Your virtual egg hunt has the opportunity to reach people all across the state, country, and even people in other countries who may have never heard the Easter message
- Reach people who haven’t come to your church (or any church) – once families have an opportunity to walk through your church building and see the layout, kiosks, classrooms, and decor, they’ll feel much more comfortable walking into church for the first time
- Not weather-dependent – if you’re in a location where Spring weather makes an egg hunt more of a challenge (or, something else prevents you from hosting an on-campus hunt), a virtual egg hunt allows you to serve the community, rain or shine
- To creatively lead the way – this is an opportunity for us, the church, to lead the way creatively. Other organizations such as cities/communities and tourist attractions may see this way of serving families!
- Family interaction – Whitefish Assembly structured their egg hunt in a way that encourages family engagement. This offers families something to do while stuck at home and gives parents a way to connect with their kids
- Increase church visibility – you can leverage this as a way to introduce your church to people nearby who have never heard of you!
- Side benefit – for a small additional fee, depending on what camera/software you use, you may be able to create a church floor-plan in the process
Watch the Interview with John
Still trying to figure out how to have your Easter Egg Hunt? Well, we may have the answer for you! Coach Keller will be interviewing Pastor John Weaver of Whitefish Assembly today. Pastor John and his team have come up with an incredibly creative and innovative idea on how to do a virtual easter egg hunt! Come see how to make that happen at your church!!__________Want to see an article on creating this experience? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q2wcgAfxQQHJziAiLGOXHhNi8wK6Ox7ca7ckl3rGrxE/edit?usp=sharingStill having some questions about livestreaming during the Corona Virus? Make sure to check this guide out: https://churchmarketinguniversity.com/the-ultimate-coronavirus-guide-for-churches/
Posted by Church Marketing University on Tuesday, March 31, 2020
How to Create a Virtual Easter Egg Hunt
Find access to a 360-camera
Whitefish Assembly used a Matterport 360-camera, commonly used by Real Estate agents creating virtual house listings. These cameras take scans of a room/building, upload them to the cloud, stitch them together, and create a virtual tour of a physical space. Reach out to local Real Estate agents or Real Estate photographers to see if you can rent, borrow, or hire someone with a 360-camera.
Cost? John Weaver estimates that hiring a photographer could cost $200-400, depending on the size of your building. However, reach out to Real Estate agents and photographers and see if anyone is willing to let you borrow a camera or help out at a lower price as a service to the community. It’s possible you could find access to a camera very cheap or even free.
Consider Logistics
Plan egg hunt logistics, such as:
- How many eggs to hide total/per room (Whitefish Assembly hid around 40-80 eggs per room, depending on room size)
- How many rooms (Whitefish Assembly used 13 rooms – most of the building other than offices, conference room, and utility room)
- What prizes you’ll offer (such as prizes for counting the number of eggs in each room with the most accuracy. Whitefish Assembly also purchased a larger, gold egg that’s hidden somewhere in the church. The first person to find it and share a screenshot will get a special prize)
- Consider placing posters about upcoming programming, online services, or church information on walls of hallways and rooms
- Egg placement – consider putting some eggs behind doors for people to “walk” around, or up on walls/shelves. This will encourage people to look around your space and become familiar with it.
- Write down the number of eggs hidden in each room, so you’ll know who wins prizes!
Set-Up and Create
Whitefish Assembly brought in a small team of volunteers (around 4 families) to hide eggs around the building. Once the eggs were hidden, they produced the virtual tour.
Whitefish Assembly set-up details:
- 2.5 hours to set-up/hide eggs
- 2.5 hours to create virtual tour
- ~130 scans on the camera, moved 6-12 feet each time
- 13 rooms
Produce and Announce
Once you’ve set-up the space and taken scans of the space, you’ll upload your virtual tour and add any post production elements. Whitefish Assembly added tags at various spots in the building, labeling things such as the entrance (with a tag about the Easter Egg Hunt instructions), kids’ check-in kiosk, welcome center (including a note about free espresso coffees for first time visitors), and more. They’re planning to announce and launch their egg hunt on Palm Sunday after their last service of the day.
