New Kent girl puts her eggs in Habitat’s basket

Easter egg hunts are a daily activity for one special young girl in New Kent County.

Each morning, eight-year-old Catherine Peterson rises bright and early to care for her 10 chickens before school. Although some might call it a chore, for Catherine it’s a labor of love.

She feeds her small flock and gathers freshly laid, warm eggs while cooing “good morning” and “thank you” to the nesting hens as she gently feels under their rumpless seats for a prize. On a good day, she’ll find two or three blue and green eggs hidden in their nests.

Catherine raises Araucana chickens among her flock. Araucanas are known as “Easter eggers” because of the blue, green, brown, or white eggs they lay. Their ancestors were purportedly first bred by the Araucanian Indians of Northern Chile — hence the name “Araucana.”

The chickens have two distinctive characteristics apart from their uncanny ability to lay a rainbow spectrum of eggs. They are rumpless, meaning they have no tail, and have tufts of feathers, which protrude from each side of their neck, giving them a quirky, but loveable, appearance. It’s no wonder Catherine has such a fondness for her young brood, which always lays an abundance of eggs in response to their young caregiver’s attention.

Catherine began giving her eggs away to members of her church’s congregation at St. Peter’s Episcopal. Ever so grateful, her church friends insisted on paying her for her produce. They loved her signature dozen — an assortment of brown, blue, and green eggs, depending on the daily mood of her hens.

Soon her teachers at New Kent Elementary started placing orders by the dozens, as did colleagues from her dad’s office at Virginia Retirement System. Business began thriving for the second grader.

But this young entrepreneur never forgot her original intent — to give to someone else in return for the gift her hens had given so freely. While some might be tempted to pocket their earnings for a spending spree at the candy store or the movies, and others might opt to save their “nest egg,” Catherine chose to give back.

She knew of a family friend who needed a nicer home. And she had heard of the work by New Kent’s Habitat For Humanity Committee to raise money to build the first habitat house in the county.

So Catherine chose to donate the $75 she had raised with the hope that she might help afford a family the opportunity to live in a nice home. To her, it seemed like the right thing to do. Hopefully with Catherine’s help, a New Kent family in need of a decent, affordable house can host an Easter egg hunt in their own yard one day soon, colored eggs included.

Submitted by Lisa Bedell, Richmond Metropolitan Habitat For Humanity.