Several hundred youth participated

MOSES LAKE - Children 3 years old and younger counted down the minutes until they could ravage McCosh Park for Easter eggs and candy Saturday afternoon.

When they were given permission to hunt for eggs, confusion quickly settled in. The ribbon containing the egg hunt pit fluttered to the ground, but no one budged.

Children looked up to their parents in confusion. A few seconds later, following some parental coaxing, the children scrambled to collect eggs.

Squeals of excitement and uncontrollable laughter erupted within the Moses Lake park.

After a few minutes of darting toward eggs and dodging oncoming children to avoid collisions, the youth left to collect their prizes. The pit area was bare with the exception of a few squished hard-boiled eggs.

The Moses Lake Lions Club has sponsored the egg hunt and for more than 10 years.

Club Member Carol Sargee awarded several prizes to children at the event. She said there were more than 7,500 eggs and more than 100 prizes.

Sargee said her favorite part of the event is watching the few minutes following the start of the hunt. She said the children race to gather eggs and are always overwhelmed with excitement.

Andrew Green, 4, said the best part of the egg hunt is grabbing the eggs off the ground and sticking them in his soccer ball-like basket.

When asked how many eggs he collected, he quickly pulled each egg out, counting all nine of them one by one.

Rhonda Ross said she traveled from Ephrata with her son Caden to attend the event.

She said Caden is almost 2 years old and did much better gathering the eggs than she thought. Caden seemed to enjoy taking his eggs out of the basket and placing them back inside the basket repeatedly, Ross laughed.

She said the event was wonderful and was impressed by the quality and organization of the egg hunt.