Crocheted Pokemon popping up all over Hespeler
Gesture of kindness and fun brings community together
Running a home daycare, Amanda Forrest regularly has a load of children’s books to drop off at the Little Free Library outside of St. James Anglican Church in Hespeler.
So when she took daughter Adalind, 3, on July 30 for the usual stroll down Ellis Road, little did she know what was awaiting them at their destination. Turning to drop the books in the box, they noticed something nestled in the grass.
Leaning against the bottom of the library’s post was a crocheted Pokemon character, Seedot, with a tag stating: “Congratulations! You Found A Free Wild Pokemon!”, and the hashtag #CrochetGO.
The Pokemons have been popping up around Hespeler since 2016, left in random areas around the village during the summer. The hunt for Pokemon gained local notoriety on the This is my Hespeler Facebook page, where some have posted pictures after a capture.
Adalind is the second member of the family to cage a wild Pokemon, as older brother Quintin, 6, had a family friend give him Togepi — a Pokemon in half an eggshell — last August after finding it in Sault Park.
“I think it’s pretty fantastic,” said Forrest about the crocheted critter craze.
“Pokemon Go is so huge, and Hespeler has the whole Hespeler Rocks (a painted rock scavenger hunt) thing going on, I think it’s great.”
While Forrest wasn’t positive of the identity of the person dropping the Pokemon around Hespeler, she figures it’s a gesture of kindness that brings the community together.
“I think it’s pretty special, just out of the goodness of her heart,” Forrest said. “It’s just she likes making them and making people smile.”
That’s exactly the reason Hespeler resident Natalie Schrier started her summer-long Pokemon “drops,” as she calls them, to do something she can enjoy with her kids and bring delight to someone’s day.
The Hespeler resident hasn’t exactly been anonymous as the Pokemon planter, announcing last year on Facebook that she was ready to hide more characters, but she tries to keep it as secretive as possible when she’s placing them around neighbourhoods.
“We try and be inconspicuous when we drop them,” Schrier said.
“We just have a little bag and we hide them, the kids have them in backpacks when they go on bike rides and we wait until no one is watching and we drop one here and drop one there. Later on, we may take another walk and see if they’re gone.”
She got the idea for the Pokemon drops after reading about Nichole Dunigan in 2016, who was crocheting Pokemon to leave at PokéStops in her hometown of Lewisville, Texas.
After Schrier showed her two younger kids, now ages 11 and 12, the story, they said it would be something fun they’d like to participate in. So Schrier went to work.
She admitted her crocheting skills weren’t as fluent then as they are now, so she was only able to produce about 30 in 2016. Plus, the Pokemon GO craze really didn’t hit until July of that year, giving her little time to produce before the fall.
In 2017 and this year, however, Schrier has been a machine, churning out about 15 to 20 Pokemon a week, crocheting in her spare time in the evening to relax after work.
“It’s really just a silly little thing,” Schrier said.
“My kids and I just have fun doing it ourselves. They love to see the little characters come to life. I keep a basket by my front door and every time someone leaves the house they always take a couple Pokemon and drop them along the way.”
Schrier also keeps the cost of the yarn close to her sleeve, noting the crocheting has become her hobby and that’s something that can’t be measured with a price tag.
“It’s fun to see when someone actually does post it online. My kids just love to see one being found, especially if it’s a spot they picked to hide it.”