All ages hop around at Plains Easter egg hunt

Wildhorse Plains Lions Club and the Church on The Move, put a new spin with this year’s Easter Egg Hunt. Hundreds of children, and a few hardy adults, took part in an exciting Easter Egg Hunt.

Special thanks went out to The Church on the Move for the many hours of volunteer work putting together the 5,000 plus Easter Eggs and the many hours hiding the eggs at the E. L. Johnson Memorial Park in Plains. Also special thanks to the Wildhorse Plains Lions Club and its president, Steve Spurr, for supplying the gifts for all the egg hunters, totaling 266 participants this year.

Several major contributors of prizes this year were, Mountain West Clothing, First Security Bank and HOPA Mountain Foundation.

Mountain West Clothing supplied easter bunnies for the kids, with HOPA Mountain Foundation giving out age-appropriate books to each child. First Security Bank donated two certificates, valued at one hundred and fifty dollars, to two lucky kids who found those special easter eggs. Those certificates were for the purchase of bicycles. Prizes for the adult Easter Egg Hunt, came from Mangy Moose Mercantile in Plains, Wild Horse Farm and Feed, Paradise Second Hand, Church on the Move and Uncommon Grounds.

This year’s Easter Egg hunt was moved to Saturday, allowing the volunteers from the Church on the Move to enjoy Sunday services. Church on the Move Pastor, Chuck Standeford, said that many of his congregation missed attending Easter services in years past.

Church member Jessica Peterson said, “it took 15 volunteers to put the 5,000 Easter eggs together and another 14 members to hide the eggs and help out during the hunt on Saturday. This was her fifth year organizing the event.

Spurr said, “the Lions Club donated between $200-$300 for prices to hand out to the kids.” $400 for candy was donated by members from the Church on the Move. The HOPA Foundation was on hand, for the second year, to hand out books for the children.

The first group to make the mad dash for eggs, were the 0 through 2-year-old age group, accompanied by moms and dads. Following the littlest egg hunters were the 3 through 5-year age kids. This group knew what was going on and their eyes were focused on those prized eggs, tripping and running along the way.

Next up came the 6 to 8-year-old children. Spectators saw purpose in their eyes and the race was on. It did not take long for the hundreds of eggs to be scooped up.

The last two age groups took it upon themselves to start their egg hunt themselves.

Kelsey Stanvesord, the events sound engineer, and Church on the Move member said, “We love the support of the community because we are a community driven church.”

The last event of the day was the adult Easter Egg Hunt. A comment made from one of the adult Easter egg hunters was, it isn’t often that adults get to act like kids.

Three very anxious hunters were, David McGonagle, Stephanie Huyghe and Tyler Hansen.

Jessica Peterson, the event coordinator said, “The adults acted better than the 9 through 14-year-olds.”

It might have been what the adult event announcer said. He said, I have pepper spray and I know how to use it, which ended up being a bit of a little white lie.

The winners of the two bicycles certificates were 6-year-old Violet Huffman and 9-year-old Ashlynn Frank, both from Plains.

This year the Easter egg hunt saw 22 children ages zero to two, 63 in the 3 through 5 group, 78 kids from the 6 to 8-year-old group, 62 in the 9 to 11-year-old group, 20 in the 12 to 14 age group, and 42 in the “I still want to be a kid” adult group.