Photo by Tony Overman/The Olympian
Three-year-old Clayton Lundstrom leads the charge of Easter egg hunters Saturday morning at Woodland Creek Community Park in Lacey. Clayton is the son of Raechel Lundstrom of Olympia.

Photo by Tony Overman/The Olympian
Justin Wilfong, 10 months, gets a hug from the Easter Bunny after Saturday's egg hunt. Justin is the son of Pat and Candee Wilfong of Spokane.

Egg hunt draws record crowd

RUTH LONGORIA THE OLYMPIAN

LACEY -- Droves of children carrying Easter baskets joined their camera-toting parents, brothers, sisters and grandparents at Woodland Creek Community Park on Saturday for Lacey's annual Easter Egg Hunt.

"Wave to the Easter Bunny," said Johanna Clark, 32, of Olympia as she captured on videotape her children's first egg hunt.

Her twin 11-month-old daughters, Rime and Joh'nell, sat in a red wagon and gazed in wonder at a waving, 5-foot-tall, costumed park volunteer.

"I wanted my girls to have the whole Easter experience," Clark said. "What better way to enjoy the blessings of the event than to come to a family celebration like this."

There was record attendance at the egg hunt this year, said Brit Kramer, who initiated the event 11 years ago, during her first year as Lacey's recreation supervisor.

Staffers counted 1,364 children and adults. In past years, attendance has ranged from 1,000 to 1,200, Kramer said.

Kramer was the only paid staff member at the event. Other supervisors -- many wearing bunny, elephant or duck costumes -- were youth volunteers or city officials.

Volunteers hid 5,000 plastic eggs filled with toys and candies for the children -- 6 years old and younger -- to find. Each child was allowed to keep up to seven eggs.

"C'mon, where are all those eggs hiding?" 6-year-old Courtney Hinkley asked as she pulled her foster mother, Barbara McGregor, onto the field to search for eggs.

Tiffany Carlile, 4, proudly held up a basket filled with seven plastic eggs, each a combination of green, orange, pink, purple, yellow and blue.

"This is Tiffany's second year. I think she found six eggs last year -- this is all so fun," said her mom, Tina Carlile of Lacey.

Brian Faris, 39, of Tenino sat on the ground with his children, Nicole, 14, and David, 7, as they helped younger siblings, Jessica, 5, and Dustin, 2, twist apart the eggs to see what goodies were inside.

"Look, you got a ring, a gold coin, a chicken eraser and a rabbit eraser," Nicole Faris said as she spread Dustin's stash out for him to admire.

"I got all candy," Jessica said with a big smile.

This was the third year that Christine Barker, 34, of Lacey brought her children, Tiffany, 5, and Megan, 2, to the hunt.

The girls wore pink bunny ears for the event.

"They're dressed for the holiday -- that's part of the fun," Barker said.

Tiffany said the most important part of the hunt was finding eggs.

"I got all seven," she said. "And I'm not going to open them 'til Easter."

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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