Senior Pastor Sara Keeling surveys the dots of pink, turquoise and orange scattered around the grass at Woodlawn Park on Saturday morning before the scheduled Easter egg hunt at 11 a.m. Mount Olivet United Methodist church volunteers had been at the park for several hours hiding the 3,000 plastic eggs for the annual community Easter Egg Hunt.

Keeling says it is her second year at Mount Olivet but she understands the Easter Egg Hunt has been a long standing tradition. Matt Voigt, a member of the church youth group, says he has been at the park with his sisters since 9:30 a.m. helping hide eggs and putting up the fences for the different age groups. He remembers when he was just a kid and used to be hunting eggs himself.

Veronika Kokhan and her mother Mariya from Ukraine have been here for a while hiding Easter eggs for the first time. Mariya says, “We have been in the United States a little over two years.” She trails off, “We arrived before … .”

Veronika says they celebrate Easter in Ukraine but they don’t have Easter egg hunts. “We don’t get a lot of these things. We do have Easter breads—they can have fruit, and we paint hard boiled eggs. You can go to church before and have the eggs sprayed with Holy water. Then you eat the eggs Easter morning. They’re really good.”

A group of what sounds like thousands of chattering children are lined up across the park waiting for their starting time. “Good morning. Can you hear me?”

Eyes turn to a woman with a megaphone in the center of the grounds. “We’re going to hunt by ages. We’ll start with the under two crowd. Four and five will hang out.” While they are waiting she explains the three Easter services to be offered the next day and the availability of a special guest petting bunny.

“Ready, set, go.” The toddlers head in all directions, clasping a parent’s hand or crawling toward that colorful object down the way. Some toddlers wander over to the square next door which is waiting for the 2-3 year-old group.

Just like that, an event that took hours to set up is over in 20 minutes. Brightly colored wicker baskets filled with eggs are dumped to be recycled for another year. 

Mount Olivet United Methodist Church is located at 1500 N Glebe Road. 

Photos by Shirley Ruhe

Julissa Lopez (9) and Luisana Bravo (5) sport their bunny ears at the Easter Egg Hunt at Woodlawn Park on Saturday morning. Mount Olivet United Methodist church volunteers had been at the park for several hours hiding the 3,000 plastic eggs for the annual community Easter Egg Hunt.

Mount Olivet United Methodist Church Senior Pastor Sara Keeling with Matt Voigt, member of the church youth group.

The crowd of children lines up along the starting point for the Mount Olivet Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning at Woodlawn Park. 

The toddler crowd starts first.