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Liberty Center celebrated its 30th Annual Community Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday beneath blue skies and bright sunshine.
Bluffton resident Eric Kiefer brought his daughter, Kayla, 2, to the hunt.
He said the event was a nice day out for them both.
“She’s ready to go,” he said.
Kayla had a plan.
“Eggs!” she said, pointing to the open park land strewn with the brightly colored things.
Nearly 100 Wells County kids crowded into the downtown park and lined the egg-filled areas with bags, baskets and buckets.
Liberty Center firefighters rang the siren to start the hunt. Emma Mounsey, 4, and her mom Christine were ready.
“It’s a really nice day for this,” Mounsey said as her daughter wandered the field for eggs.
Cheryl Osborn, lead volunteer coordinator, started working on this year’s hunt in late February. She recruited as many volunteers as she could, but admitted they were easy to find.
The Liberty Center Community Egg Hunt was started in 1979 by Cindy Zook. They hid hard-boiled eggs initially, but switched to plastic when the count hit 1,000 eggs.
Zook started the Easter celebration for children that lived in the town. The first event had 30 kids searching for eggs. Today the event draws families from around the county.
Osborn has been the main driving force behind the community egg hunt for the last several years.
She is quick to express her gratitude toward everyone who participated. From the individual volunteers to the businesses who donated prizes, Osborn is grateful.
“I could never do this myself,” she said. “Without everyone’s help we couldn’t do this.”
The Liberty Center egg hunt started at noon. Just a few miles down the road and a couple hours earlier children piled into the gymnasium at Southern Wells for an indoor egg hunt.
Erik Milholland brought his son Dylan, 2, and wife Danielle, from Lexington, Ky. to the hunt.
When he pulled into the school parking lot he was surprised there were no children outside.
“I thought maybe we missed it, but when we went in the gym it was full of kids,” he said.
Like so many other community and church sponsored Easter hunts Southern Wells hid hundreds of eggs, but the fact they did it inside made it just a little bit better, he said.
“That was nice, Dylan didn’t need his coat,” he said.
jerryb@news-banner.com
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