A sunny Easter Saturday, an eggs-cellent time for an egg hunt

Story and photos by Sharon Harrison
Hunting for more than 5,000 eggs sounds like no small feat, but for children who hopped on over to the Picton Fairgrounds Saturday morning, it proved to be a fairly easy task.

Under brilliant warm sunshine, the egg-travaganza attracted hundreds of Prince Edward County kids, as well as a few who were visiting the area to see family and friends for the holiday.

Put together by the Picton Firefighters’ Association, the annual volunteer event (which was on hiatus for the last few years due to COVID) was an egg-cellent opportunity to get as many foil-wrapped mini chocolate eggs into baskets in the shortest amount of time imaginable, although every kid was clearly a winner.

Armed with colourful baskets, bags, buckets, pails, containers, even upturned hats – really, any vessel that could hold a goodly supply of chocolate eggs – the art and the skill of egg hunting was completed in short order, made easier by the glimmer of the foil under the bright sunlight.

There were two separate eggs hunts, staged apart, for two age groups from zero to five years, and six to 11 years.

While it may have been an eggs-hausting undertaking for the very littlest hunters, many did eggs-tremely well in the eggs-ercise as the little ones scrambled to poach as many eggs as possible, as fast as possible.

And while many may have been out of practice and a little rusty due to COVID pandemic cancellations of the hunt in recent years, egg-hunting skills nonetheless appeared in top form as many appeared eggs-perts at the craft.

Grand prizes came in the form of a wagon for the littlest hunter (zero to five years), with two lucky winners from the six to 11 age group each receiving a bicycle.

Seven-year-old Imogen was all smiles to receive a new bicycle. Her sister Cressida, 9, won a bucket of sidewalk chalk. The two were visiting the County from Toronto.

Imogen, 7, won herself a new bicycle from Picton Home Hardware, donated to the Picton Firefighters’ Association for its easter egg hunt, Saturday. She is pictured with her sister Cressida, 9, who was a lucky door prize winner of a bucket of chalk. The two were visiting the County from Toronto.

Six-year-old Lockynn-Grace Sztuke visiting from Mansfield, Québec, was the lucky recipient of the other bicycle.

Lockynn-Grace was joined by her sister, Estellaa-Hope Sztuke, 3, who came to the event with their dad (who grew up in the County), grandma and other family members they were visiting here for Easter.

Lockynn-Grace Sztuke, 6, was the lucky recipient of a new bicycle from Picton Home Hardware, donated to the Picton Firefighters’ Association for its easter egg hunt, Saturday. She is shown with her three-year-old sister Estellaa-Hope Sztuke, and dad Kyler Sztuke who were all visiting the County from Mansfield, Québec.

Numerous door prizes were also snapped up by lucky tickets holders, where all prizes were generously donated by Picton Home Hardware (at press time, no one had yet claimed the wagon).

Prize recipients were clearly very hoppy with the donated gifts, along with their respective collected chocolate stash.

Everyone seemed to have an egg-ceptional time where it was clear it was difficult for some to contain their egg-citement, where a hopping good time was had by all as the event was everything and more than it was cracked up to be.

The Easter bunny – or bunnies – (is there more than one?) were kept busy over the Easter long weekend as they were observed hopping about in several locations around the County, including Northport, Milford and Picton.