ARLINGTON — It could be the Easter Bunny was the only one warm enough during Arlington’s Easter Egg Hunt Saturday. He was all bundled up in white fur resistant to the cold wind blowing and didn’t seem to shiver at all while hundreds of kids clambered onto his lap. Luckily the rain stopped in time for the event.
It was a huge crowd, with a steady stream of cars pulling into the south side of the airport during the hour before the 11 a.m. start time.
The grass field adjacent to the Stillaguamish Athletic Club was filled with an estimated 500 cars, according to Sarah Hegge, the city’s recreation manager who coordinated the huge event.
“We had two sessions last year and counted about 300 cars at the first session,” Hegge said. “We didn’t count them this year, but it looks a lot more than last year.”
Hegge was sad to hear a complaint from one mother who said it was a terrible experience for her 8 year old.
“She got ran over by the big kids and never got an egg,” said the mother.
It’s one of the unfortunate consequences of being small in a big crowd competing for eggs.
Parents were required to stay behind the taped-off hunting area for age groups 3 – 6 and 7 – 12, but not for 0 – 2.
Rashon Miller, too, was sad to find all the eggs gone from the ground with none in his basket, but he was lucky that a couple of nice girls offered some eggs out of their baskets. To top it off, one of the eggs contained one of eight grand-prize winning coupons for a basket full of goodies.
After the three very popular egg hunts, some of the crowd dispersed, but many gathered around for cookies and hot chocolate, and a chance to visit the Easter Bunny.
“The volunteers were awesome,” Hegge said, adding they arrived at 8 a.m. to help stuff and scatter the eggs. She had help from the city of Arlington’s Fire Department, Arlington United Church, Cascade Valley Hospital and some teenagers from Youth Dynamics.
“We had at least 5,000 eggs,” Hegge said. “And 20 free tickets to an Explosion basketball game were given away as prizes.
“Our next event is Arbor Day on Saturday, April 25,” Hegge said. “It’s not quite as chaotic as this one.”
