The Town of New Windsor held its annual Easter Egg Hunt Saturday, March 28 at Kristi Babcock Memorial Park. Despite the chilly weather, hundreds of New Windsor residents came out to the park to enjoy the sunny weather and some Easter fun.

 

There were five different hunts scheduled for the day, separated by age group. The first egg hunt, starting right at 10 a.m., was the five and under hunt. Then at 10:30 a.m. children aged six to twelve participated in their egg hunt, at 11 am the teen egg frenzy for ages 13-20, and finally the adult egg scramble was the last hunt of the day at 11:30 a.m. In addition to the more fast-paced hunts, from 10 to 11 a.m. the town also operated the sensory friendly ‘Chill and Cheerful’ egg hunt open to all ages, where participants could gather up to ten eggs at their own pace.

 

Jessica Dickinson, the New Windsor Recreation Director said the structure of the egg hunts was a replication of the previous year’s success. The Chill and Cheerful hunt was an especially successful addition to the yearly tradition, with Dickinson saying “That’s our number one most registered for hunt, because a lot of people want their kid, or their kid prefers a more relaxed environment.”

 

The eggs themselves contained small toys and trinkets for the children to take home, as well as blue tickets that could be exchanged for larger prizes at a prize table in the pavilion. The event also featured a pair of Easter bunnies holding buckets of treats that participants could take pictures with both in the pavilion, and on a bench in front of the chill and cheerful egg hunt. In a corner of the pavilion, the Ella Rose Foundation ran a small area with activities like a bubble machine and kinetic sand.

 

The Ella Rose foundation provides support to families of children with special needs by helping them pay for treatments or equipment that are not covered by insurance.

 

“We have a great partnership with the town of New Windsor… they invite us to all their events to be the sensory table, the sensory piece and the special needs piece of the program.”

 

The egg hunt had a registration limit of about 450 people, a number that the event quickly reached. Dickinson said “We were sold out, we actually had a waiting list too so we were able to put folks on the waiting list.”

 

The event seemed to be popular for a reason. June Garcia, the parent of a six year old said “We’ve done it for the past four or five years…I think it’s a great event, I think it’s nice that the community puts this on.”

 

The next community event from the New Windsor Recreation department is the Memorial Day Parade on May 17.