BELLE  — An old-time car cruise and Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 4, is just one of several COVID-19 social distancing events in the area to get people out of the house but respecting the rules and recommendations set by the Center for Disease Control  (CDC) and local health departments.

Jimmy Zumwalt and wife Wendy are the brains behind the cruise.

“Wendy and I talked this weekend about how we used to cruise town and thought it would maybe be a good idea to do something like that,” Zumwalt said. “I just put a thing out on Facebook and people were crazy about it.”

Zumwalt said he wanted to investigate the rules of COVID-19 and tagged Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman in his post, as well as Belle Mayor Josh Seaver to make sure his idea was even plausible.

“Heitman posted right then that he thought ‘it was an amazing idea’ and Seaver posted a bit later that ‘it sounds like fun.’”

The Zumwalts own the plot of land where Buehrlen’s Service Station used to be, across from Casey General Store.

“We thought to meet there,” Zumwalt said. “Take an hour drive around Belle like when we were kids.”

The event is supposed to take place from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., and no routes are in place. Just drive around, count eggs and waive to people. Zumwalt sees the cruise as a family event, not six adults in a car.

“A lot of people don’t understand why houses in small towns were built so close to the highways, because it used to be a social thing,” he said. “People could maybe come to town and eat before hand.”

He added that J&J Cafe, The Dinner Belle and Porky’s Barbecue, El Charles, and Country Belle Cafe (The Greek Place) all volunteered to serve curbside meals.

“Porky’s Barbecue said they would sell brats and hot dogs via drive-up service,” Zumwalt said.

Zumwalt said cruises are one of the many past-times that have come back since the beginning of the COVID-19 quarantine because people are tired of social media and want social interaction.

Belle Chapter of Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) announced last week that they would have a Social Distancing Easter Egg Hunt April 1-7, where families are encouraged to make paper Easter Eggs and display them in a window or on their mailbox.

“It’s social distancing with a twist,” the FCCLA group posted on their Facebook page. “Take a car ride to see how many eggs you can find!”

Participants should take pictures of their finds to share on the group’s Facebook page.

“Please stay in your cars, stay safe!” the group page wrote.

For purposes of the cruise, Zumwalt said they may have people email in how many eggs they found on the cruise and a prize of some sort will be given to the family that finds the most.

“There is a lot of dynamics to this and we need to take some ideas and put them together,” Zumwalt said. “We are going to do this and I know a lot of people who are excited about it.”

Already 30 to 40 cars have committed to participating in the cruise.

“This is supposed to be a safe social event,” Zumwalt said. “We don’t want anyone in danger of getting contamination, but people can still get out of their homes. We can surely think about it and come out with some guidelines.”

Zumwalt said when the event is over, everyone should go home, not socializing in parking lots or at the park.

“Once again, like the coronavirus, this doesn’t have a rule book,” he said. “Don’t get out of your car and practice social distancing.