This year marks the second annual Easter egg hunt since community member Kathi Wolfsteller took over, and she said the biggest change participants can expect this year is the move from Sunday to Saturday.
Wolfsteller said she made the decision to change to the day before Easter so that families can spend the actual holiday together without having to plan around the event. She said this way they can focus on church and family activities on Sunday, but still get to join in the egg hunt fun the day before.
The event is open to all children up to age 11 and starts at 11 a.m. tomorrow morning at the sports complex.
The hunt will be broken up into age groups with the youngest group (up to age two) hunting on their own (accompanied by parents) before the older kids take the fields. The remaining three age groups will all hunt for eggs at the same time, but on three separate sports complex fields.
Wolfsteller said each group will only take about five minutes to find and collect all of the eggs on the field.
Since Wolfsteller took over, she has been using plastic eggs, per health department regulations. This year she said hunters can expect to search for 20,000 eggs - double last year's number of 10,000. Last year Easter fell during spring break so Wolfsteller wasn't surprised by the relatively low number of participants. This year, however, she said she expects nearly 600 kids to turn out to hunt for the plastic eggs.
Each plastic egg is filled with a small prize of some sort donated by local businesses and organizations. Wolfsteller said the plastic egg treats range from small toys and gifts to coupons for a free ice cream. There are some select gold and silver eggs out on the fields that hold something even more special: a "golden ticket."
Golden tickets are like coupons that can be used for redemption at a prize table set up at the event. Those lucky kids who find a golden ticket get to trade it in for a special prize at the end of the hunt. An example of one of those prizes is an Easter egg basket filled with goodies donated by a local business.
Wolfsteller said that although the hunt itself takes only a few minutes, kids and parents can expect to spend the most time opening their many eggs and redeeming tickets for prizes. She said the event will go until around noon.
Once all the eggs have been opened, parents have the option to drop off their kids' plastic eggs in recycling bins donated by DeLong Ford so that they can be used again next year.
Families are also encouraged to re-use baskets or bags from last year's Easter egg hunt. Wolfsteller said she will have some extra egg-collecting baskets available that were donated, but is not sure how long they will last.[[In-content Ad]]
