The quiet community room began to fill with voices, young and old, as parents and children arrived for the Flashlight Egg Hunt at Deicke Park on Friday, March 18. Every kid came in ready to hunt with their bags, baskets, and flashlights.
Just half an hour earlier, around 6:30 p.m., HHS students Vickie Watkins, Deissy Jimenez, and sisters Suhani and Khushali Upadhyaya arrived to help supervise and run the event.
“I like working with kids,” said senior Khushali Upadhyaya. “There’s always a lot of people here, and the people are really nice.”
According to REC Supervisor Meredith Johnson, 53 kids in grades fourth through eigth were signed up for the egg hunt. Next Saturday will be the egg hunt for the younger kids: infants through 8-year-olds. This was the second year that the flashlight egg hunt was held.
Kids were here for all different reasons: to be with their friends, get some cool prizes, run around outside, and even for celebrations.
“[My friend] really wanted me to go with her today,” said Lexi Kowalski. “I thought it would be really fun since I’m turning 10.” said Lexi Kowalski. Kowalski was excited since it was her first time doing an egg hunt in the dark.
Parents were welcomed to stay for the entire event, or come back later to pick up their children once they had collected all their eggs.
Once the kids were done eating, around 7:30 p.m., they were all let outside to find their eggs. However, the eggs were only behind the small building, with caution tape around the trees to keep kids away from pavement and the path close to Route 47.
Not only were there eggs, but there were slips of paper inside random ones that declared the kids who found them winners of either a prize from the prize table, a gift card/coupon, or one of the small/medium/large eggs with mystery prizes.
The event concluded with all the kids rushing up excitedly to the prize table to try and pick the best one on the table, and parents arriving to pick up their kids. One thing’s for sure, the room wasn’t quiet any more, as throughout the night there was excitement, fun, and lots of candy.