Scramble to fill baskets brings ‘egg-ceptional’ smiles

Story and photos by Sharon Harrison
The sound of the siren from the big fire truck was the unmistakable signal to start dozens and dozens of egg-cited children to scramble the field in a hopping eggs-ercise to see who could get to the Easter eggs first – but with plentiful supplies to go around, no one missed out in the egg-straordinary event.

In the egg-citement, a frenzy of little hands (a few gloved) grasped as many little foil eggs as fast as possible in the egg-travaganza. Egg-static, some chose to cling to fistfuls of the choclatey treats, others soon deposited their gathered stash in baskets (or pails or bowls or bags, really whatever vessel came to hand – it was bring-your-own-basket), motivated to search harder as containers quickly filled, egg-sposing their precious finds.

And while the idea was to hunt for as many of the jewel-coloured, foil-covered chocolate eggs imaginable, in the fastest time possible no less, no eggs-perience and no eggs-pertize was required in order to get the job hatched.

This egg-clusive event was all it was cracked up to be, and the day went eggs-actly to plan, and there were many good eggs to be found, clutches even, and maybe much too many to count.

And while putting all your eggs in one basket isn’t usually recommended, it was essential for a successful outcome at the Picton Firefighers’ Association annual Easter Egg Hunt held at the Picton Fairgrounds Saturday.

Waiting for the first egg hunt of the day to begin was 18-month-old Bruno MacGregor from Sheba’s Island, who brought his mum and dad with him, Amanda Galbraith and Mark MacGregor. This was Bruno’s first-ever Easter egg hunt, said mum.

As usual, two separate egg hunts took place, the first to cater to the younger children (0-5 years) held in the safe confines of the fenced play area, followed by the second shortly after for the slightly older kids (6-11 years) on the grass adjacent the Crystal Palace.

Admission was just $3 per child and came with a chance to win one of two bicycles for the older kids’ category, and a wagon for the younger group, in a random draw which took place once the egg hunts were finished. All prizes were donated by Picton Home Hardware.

There were even more hoppy smiles as the three young winners claimed their prizes.

An enormously big red fire truck, with an even bigger extended ladder, was on display where kids could climb up inside the cab and explore the outside of the vehicle, with a little help from the volunteer firefighters who made it all possible.

Witnessing a large contingent of the County’s young population and many families, from grandkids to grandparents to aunts and uncles and cousins, come out on an annual basis to hunt for eggs is a heartwarming and egg-citing sight at Eastertime. And while there was a cool nip to the early morning air and a chilly breeze, glorious spring sunshine made for a hoppy and memorable Easter weekend event indeed.

And while the Easter bunny was busy doing other bunny things elsewhere in the County this weekend (in Northport, Milford, Wellington, Macaulay Village, Ameliasburgh and Hillier), it was still a eggstra-special and hoppy day for the little children, who came out for the traditional hunt, a favourite with many local kids, and a treat for those visiting for the weekend, made egg-stra special by the effort of local volunteer firefighters.

With smiles ablaze, everyone seemed to have an egg-ceptional time, where for a few all that egg hunting was a little eggs-hausting, and for others, it was difficult for them to contain their egg-citement.

All in all, an egg-ceedingly good time was had by all.

And for all the grown-ups who may be wondering if they need an eggs-cuse to eat even more chocolate this weekend, the Easter bunny says, no eggs-cuse needed.