While many in the city cursed a recent snowfall, organizers of an annual Easter egg hunt saw it as a blessing.
Now in their fifth year running the annual hunt at Charry Park, Hill City Kinsmen organizer Brent Carey said the snow, mixed with warmer temperatures and a lot of sunshine, helped around 1,500 people enjoy the day Friday. Usually the event, while always a good time, can be pretty messy from the spring thaw. "It's easy for the children to find the eggs, they stand out really well and it's better than being in the mud," he said armed with a bullhorn and sporting bunny ears between hunts.
The organization sees about 8,000 plastic eggs with 20,000 pieces of chocolate snatched up by eager children within an hour. They lined up around the boards one of the park's rinks, basket in hand, and waited for a siren to send them hunting. While it may look like chaos, seven-year-old Jasmine Ouellette said seeing all the kids running around is her favourite part. "It's really fun," she said.
Her friends Riley Smith and Makenna Christie agreed. Makenna was able to grab more than a dozen eggs on her run. "And I got to run around the whole thing," she said.
The event has been all Lisa Hall's three kids could talk about in the two weeks leading up to it. "They were on the countdown for it," she said.
Her son Kenyon Craig, 6, is a two-time veteran of the Easter egg hunt. He said it's just fun to run as fast as you can when the siren goes. Hall said it's just a great event for kids to enjoy being kids. "Putting smiles on their face is about the best thing you can see as a mother," she said. "It's always great to see your kids happy."
Hearing things like that puts a smile on the Kinsmen, which need 35 people just to stuff the eggs before enlisting whole families to help run the event. "I just hope they enjoy it and get into the Easter sprit," Carey said.
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