GALLERY: Central Park home to first Easter egg hunt

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Rain didn’t keep kids from finding eggs the day before Easter.

A large group of children and their parents gathered Saturday at 10 a.m. at Charles City’s Central Park to find more than 2,000 Easter eggs.

The sidewalks of Central Park were filled with children waiting to go after the eggs hidden throughout the grass.

Sections of Central Park were designated for youths of different ages, with the youngest groups’ eggs being found first, and the oldest groups’ being opened later on for all ages when not all the eggs were picked up.

Parents assisted their children in finding eggs with some using their umbrellas, unnecessary for the moment, to store Easter eggs.

On Saturday there was a lull in the rain long enough for the children to run around and find the Easter prizes.

Hy-Vee sponsored the event and held an Easter Bunny meet and greet at Hy-Vee after the event until 1 p.m.

Along with Hy-Vee, Frito-Lay and Coca-Cola also sponsored the event as well, said Hy-Vee Store Director Ryan Parker

The candy was from Russell Stover and Hershey.

Hy-Vee hopes to participate next year as well, Parker said.

“This winter we did a candy-cane hunt out here in Central Park and that went over pretty good, so we thought we would try an Easter egg hunt,” Parker said.

This was Hy-Vee’s first time sponsoring the Charles City Central Park Easter egg hunt, Parker said.

“We’re going to make it a tradition and try to build it, and try to have more people out here each time,” Parker said. “Hopefully the rain didn’t keep people away today.”

Children from ages three and up were able to participate in the hunt.

The children participating ran around Central Park for only 10 minutes to find eggs full of candy.

Families found about the event in a variety of ways, one of the more popular was through the social media website facebook.

Isaac Burbridge who participated in the hunt said the hunt was cool and found several eggs.

Hayden Lopez, Lydia Lopez, and Eric Lopez recently moved out to Charles City from South Carolina this year, celebrated their first Easter here and participated in the hunt.

“Back home we would always do an Easter egg hunt,” said Jessica Lopez, their mother.

“I like it, I got lots of eggs,” said Hayden Lopez.

The Lopez family found at least 45 eggs.