The following is attributed to Friends at Haddonfield Meeting.
Saturday, April 4th was a wonderful, sunny day. Meeting volunteers placed 300 colorful plastic eggs filled with goodies throughout our historic graveyard, with its rolling hills and ancient trees. Curious squirrels came running, and three managed to carry off eggs.
Families began arriving about 20 minutes early. By 11 AM, about 50 children plus lots of parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles gathered for instructions and the start of our first Annual Easter Egg Hunt. The youngest children – under 3 years of age – were given a few extra minutes to start looking for some eggs. Then the children between three and nine years old began running further away to start their search.
Within 20 minutes, all the eggs had been collected and were laying in Easter baskets and various other containers. As we all gathered again near the entrance, families stood around looking at the baskets and eggs, taking pictures, and laughing. Children who found silver and gold eggs received a little prize – seeds in a cup, ready to plant. Special bags with chocolate covered pretzels were handed out to several children who were unable to find any eggs.
Most of our Meeting’s younger families participated, as well as the children and grandchildren of our meeting. This was so much fun that our Events Committee co-clerks, Jeannine Powers and Ty Drago, are already thinking about ways to improve planning for next year.
We credit the wonderful turnout to a blitz of publicity by our Communications Committee and many others: flyers were posted in local libraries and grocery stores, the Haddonfield Friends School provided flyers and email reminders, information was posted on a New Jersey calendar of family-oriented activities, and we paid for a small color ad in the local bi-weekly newspaper. Many thanks to all the volunteers and everyone who attended, making this a very special activity.
