Essex Gospel Community Easter Egg Hunt attracts large crowd

by Sylene Argent

It has been two-years since area youths were able to don a pair of bunny ears and head to the annual Essex Gospel Community Easter Egg Hunt, with a basket in tow, due to the pandemic.

  With the sun shining on Saturday morning, and around 28,000 eggs to collect on the soccer fields adjacent to the Essex Centre Sports Complex, hundreds of area youngsters were more than eager to get their hop on and enjoy the 19th Annual Community Easter Egg Hunt.

The annual festive event was available for children, as young as infants, to around age 11.

  With an intense countdown from ten – and the children divided into appropriate age divisions – at the sound of the buzzer, the participants dashed off to collect as many chocolate-filled eggs as they could.

  The free event also offered participants an opportunity to enter raffles, enjoy a free barbeque, and take a photo with the Easter Bunny.

  Essex Gospel Community Church hosts the annual Easter Egg Hunt as a way to connect with the community, thanks to many volunteers who dedicate their time on the day of the event, and planning ahead of time, including stuffing all of the plastic eggs with chocolate treats or tickets that can be exchanged for a prize.  

  Jessica DeMoor, Family Ministries Pastor, said the event was fantastic. It was difficult for organizers to plan this year’s event going into it, not knowing how many participants to expect.

“Everything turned out really great, due to the volunteers. There are around 100 volunteers from our Church who give everything that day, some are there from 6:45am and some are there until 3pm, getting everything cleaned up.”

  She added those at Essex Gospel are, “Really thankful we could host the Community Easter Egg Hunt this year, so we could provide a fun Easter event.”

  In total, the Church calculated 1140 people attended the event, including parents of the young participants.