Youngsters to Scramble at Takoma Park Easter Egg Hunt

About 2,800 plastic eggs will be hidden at Lee Jordan Field, next to Takoma Park Middle School—located at 7611 Piney Branch Road —for Takoma Park’s annual Easter Egg hunt scheduled for Monday, April 25, 11 a.m., said Carey Antoszewski, a Recreation Department staffer who oversees special events.

The egg hunt is free for children age six months to seven plus years, said Antoszewski, who added that 2010’s egg hunt drew about 300 children and about the same number of youngsters are expected to participate in 2011’s egg hunt.

Because egg hunt participants range form from toddlers to tots, the egg hunters are divided into four age categories, Antoszewski said. Those age groups are two and under; three and four; five and six; and seven and older.

In addition to age groups, there are four different time frames that the egg hunt goes off for each age group, Antoszewski said. “So, for the two and under group, that group goes right at 11 a.m., and so on and so forth,” she said.

Because “it’s more of an egg scramble than an egg hunt,” the children are divided into age groups for both safety (“So bigger kids won’t be trampling over little kids to get eggs.”) and “so parents with multi-age children can watch their kids go for the eggs,” Antoszewski said. In addition, there will be staff tasked with keeping the kids from colliding during the scramble, which is why the hunt is held at Lee Jordan Field, she said, adding, the field is a large enough space so that children are not likely to collide into each other.

How the eggs will be hidden is dependent on the terrain, Antoszewski said. “It depends on how tall the grass is if they will be hidden in the grass” or the bushes, she said. In addition, the eggs will have treats inside them such as “candy filled eggs” and other prizes. However, “the eggs for the children up to age four won’t have much in the way of toys or candy inside of their eggs, but they get other special treats that the older kids don’t get such as inflatable eggs, and little stuffed bunnies.”

As for what parents have to do, there is no registration, families they just need to show up to and wait for the appropriate time for their children to start hunting, Antoszewski said. Parents can prepare their children for the hunt by working on the kids’ “visual acuity and identification of an egg,” and just Prior to the start of the hunt, parents can get their kids “warmed up” with “jumping jacks,” she joked. However, children should have “a basket or a bag to collect the eggs,” but other that, they “just need to be ready to have a good time.”

To the egg hunters, Antoszewski does not wish them luck by saying, “break a leg;” rather, she wishes they “crack an egg.”