Easter arrived early, and from several hundred feet in the air, for a handful of youngsters in Allen County Friday.
Barry Lamb, a long-time pilot who has aided past Easter celebrations from the controls of his 1966 Cessna, took advantage of Friday’s pristine weather conditions to drop plastic Easter eggs from his plane for the children of several of his neighbors.
In all, Barry dropped more than 300 eggs to 10 families. Antonio Ribeiro de Campos, a foreign exchange student staying with the Lamb family this year, assisted with the aerial egg drop.
“With the COVID-19 this Easter, many kids can’t enjoy an Easter egg hunt,” explained Jennifer Lamb, Barry’s wife. “So we decided to bring the hunt to them and still adhere to social distancing. I think Barry and Antonio had the most fun of anyone.”
Aerial deliveries have become something of a habit for Barry, who would drop copies of the Kansas City Star at his grandmother’s house about 10 years ago.
Then, he was asked to do an aerial drop for Church Easter services.
Fast forward to this spring, when the COVID-19 pandemic sidelined pretty much all public events, including the annual egg hunts.
That included prohibiting Antonio, a junior at Marmaton Valley High School in Moran, from visiting his girlfriend.
“Barry and Antonio made a surprise drop of candy and things to his girlfriend a couple of weeks ago because he couldn’t see her,” Jennifer said.
Antonio, who will return to Brazil in June, is slated to graduate from high school in December, and plans to return to Kansas next year to attend Allen Community College.
Like Barry, he hopes to become a pilot, Jennifer said.
“We love him like our own son,” Jennifer said. “He has two sets of parents now.”
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