Egg hunts deliver excitement by the basketful
Easter came a week early for hundreds of Columbia County children Saturday.
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Children in the 5-6 year-old group wait to be led to their egg field before the start of the annual Columbia County Easter egg hunt at Patriot's Park.
Photo by Kevin Martin
Both Patriots Park and Sharon Baptist Church held their annual Easter egg hunts that awarded prizes, featured games and even delivered a message.
Sharon Baptist held its hunt at the home of Chris Neal on Cobbham Road in Winfield.
One of Neal's large pastures held around 1,500 plastic eggs that were hunted down by 63 children of all ages.
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Eggs contained prizes, candy and some special eggs held a very special item that contained a special meaning.
Chris McKenney, 6, of Evans paints an Easter egg at the Winfield Easter Egg Hunt.
Photo by Donnie Fetter
"We put out 11 Resurrection Eggs," said Charlene Montgomery, an Appling resident and one of the organizers of the hunt.
"One egg might contain nothing, which represents Jesus' tomb being empty after his resurrection. Another egg will have a pair of praying hands that represents Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemene. Basically, they tell the resurrection story."
The Patriots Park Easter Egg Hunt didn't come with a theological message, but more than 250 children still showed up to win prizes and candy.
Hosted by the Columbia County Recreation Department, the hunt featured 8,000 plastic eggs full of candy, toys and special prizes spread over four fields.
Children were divided into different age groups and stormed their respective fields following a shotgun start.
The scene caused one person in the crowd to remark, "It's the running of the bulls in Pamplona (Spain)."
Following the hunt, children got to have their picture taken with the Easter Bunny and participate in games like the bean bag toss, hopscotch and many others.
Seven year-olds Andy Peel of Vidette, Brad Raley of Vidette and Colin Flagg of Evans race in search of Easter eggs during the annual Columbia County egg hunt at Patriots Park.
Photo by Kevin Martin
"I know a lot of kids from here are out of town with their parents to escape Masters week and that's too bad," said recreation department head Charlie Beale.
"You look around and you can see these kids are having a really great time," he said.
Christy James of Martinez, tries to coax her son Kyle, 3, into getting a picture made with the Easter Bunny during the egg hunt at Patriots Park.
Photo by Kevin Martin
The winners of prize eggs at the hunt for ages 4 and under were Sydney Brown in first, Ashar Evans in second and Chloe Roy in third. Ages 5 to 6 winners were Carolina Archer in first, Patrick Shelton in second and Spencer Anderson in third. Winners for ages 7 to 8 were Hanna Bright in first, Chelsea Schide in second and Billy Adams in third. Ages 9 to 10 winners were Brandon Shay in first place and Kala Pickrell finding the eggs for both second and third place.
"It wasn't that hard," said Hanna Bright, who celebrated her 8th birthday Friday as well as finding the grand prize egg in her age group. "I just started running, looked down and found it."