Turns out that the White House Easter Bunny two weeks ago was a big-time Republican from Windsor.
Jerry Helgeson donned the costume for the Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn April 13 — then kept mostly silent about it before confessing his role to The Greeley Tribune.
“The bunny head was a little claustrophobic,” Helgeson said. “You can’t see out very well and can’t breathe normally, and it was very hot.”
Helgeson, president of American Eagle Distributing, didn’t vote for President Barack Obama. But he got the job through his niece, Ellie Schafer, who is director of the White House Visitors Office.
He sent a letter of congratulations when she got that post, adding, “Maybe I can be the Easter Bunny sometime.”
Two weeks before Easter, Helgeson learned was going to be the Bunny. Security checks followed, then a walk-through and a trying on of the suit — no easy task for the 6-foot-5 Helgeson.
The day after Easter, he showed up at 6 a.m., appeared on the front balcony of the White House for the national anthem, then met the first family. Obama’s younger daughter, Sasha, “was a little afraid of the big bunny,” Helgeson said, “so she and I went into a room where the other kids couldn’t see, and I took off the bunny head and showed her the Easter Bunny was Ellie’s uncle.”
From the balcony, Obama tried to talk, but the microphones weren’t working. Helgeson said the president whispered into a bunny ear, “Jerry, have you got a mike in there that works?”
Thousands of families attended the event, and Helgeson wore the hot suit for 12 hours. He had to change once because he was soaked.
Asked whether he would vote next time for Obama, he said, “I still don’t agree with some of his ideas. But he sure has a nice family.”
