---

    OWATONNA, Minn. – When Karen Kasper gets an idea, she runs with it.
    “That’s how I roll,” she said. “When I get a good thought, I say, ‘Let’s do this.’”
    That is what happened with the Easter event Kasper thought of two days before it occurred April 3 on her family’s 500-cow dairy near Owatonna. The event included her daughter-in-law, Betsy Kasper, dressed in an Easter bunny costume for a photo opportunity in front of an Easter-themed backdrop at the end of the farm’s driveway.
    “It was fun and the people who came seemed to have a lot of fun, too,” Kasper said. “This is an unusual year. The weather was just perfect. If it was other years, I don’t think we would have been able to sit outside for four hours.”
    When Betsy bought the costume for two family Easter gatherings along with a birthday party, Kasper added one more event.
    “I said, ‘Hey, what about doing something on the farm – a drive by thing,’” she said. “It was a revelation. We thought it was something we would do it just for some fun. We’re so close to Owatonna – 3.5 miles out of town – and because of the forecast we figured it would be an OK thing to do.”
    Two days later, their idea came to fruition.
    “Because it was so quick and spontaneous, we didn’t get a lot of planning time in,” Kasper said.
    Kasper had her son, Tony Kasper, set up large square bales of straw for the backdrop and smaller straw bales to sit on for picture-taking. She then added Easter baskets with eggs, flower garland, a sign and balloons.
    “I stayed up until midnight the night before making art work and putting the decorations together so it would make an OK backdrop,” Kasper said. “Just a little last-minute creative thinking is all it was.”
    While time for planning was tight, Kasper wanted to make people comfortable during the pandemic.
    “Our setup was at the end of the driveway just to respect what’s going on in our world today,” Kasper said.
    On the dairy’s Facebook post Kasper used to promote the event, she explained the process – people had to stay in their car until it was their turn to take a picture with the Easter bunny. They could approach the area when it was their turn. People were also asked to wear a mask, and only take it off for a brief picture. For $10, each car could take pictures, receive a few pieces of candy, share a few laughs, take in the country sights and have a good time.
    “It was nice out and in the open air, and we weren’t letting more than one group of people come up at a time,” Kasper said. “We didn’t want to have it inside because we don’t have a place to put it, and we wanted to keep people outside and distanced. It all fit together perfectly.”
    The four-hour event saw a steady trickle of cars, Kasper said. As soon as one left another showed up. Although there was a short lineup of four cars waiting at one point, Kasper said most of the event was easy to manage.
    Kasper wanted to hand out cheese sticks to promote dairy, but she did not know how many people to expect in attendance. Instead, she opted for Easter candy due to the time constraints.
    The exposure to dairy was simple for this event. People could drive past the dairy and see the animals eating at the bunk parallel to the road.
    “It gets them exposed to how close this farm is to where they live in town,” Kasper said. “During those hours of the day when we had the event, our animals were out eating so people were interested in that. Even the adult neighbors slowed up and stopped and looked. They enjoyed the sights.”
    Making people happy and seeing them smile is the biggest reason Kasper likes creating events like these and being involved in the community.
    “You forget about everything else you have going on,” she said. “I could have spent that four hours doing something else, but it was a good break and it was just so rewarding to see people enjoying something simple.”
    While Kasper had very little time to plan this year’s event, she is already gathering ideas on how to make it more dairy-focused for next year.  
    “This was quick and easy,” Kasper said. “It was all in good fun and that’s what it boils down to.”

---