Children descend on Capaha Park for 18th annual Easter egg hunt

Thousands of eggs.

Hundreds of children.

Three minutes.

Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department held its 18th annual Easter egg hunt at Capaha Park on Saturday for children. Each age group was given 30 to 45 minutes to hunt, but the landscape was wiped clean in three minutes.

Caleb Wendell, 7, found out just how quickly the eggs disappeared when he fell and hurt his knee. "After he fell you couldn't get caught up," said his mother, Lisa Wendell of Burfordville. "It was like a pack of chickens."

Recreation coordinator Jared Tanz said, "It takes 3,000 eggs altogether. We always hold back a few for the latecomers or kids who just don't get many."

Caleb picked up only three eggs, but his sister, Haleigh, 5, shared some of the 10 eggs she picked up.

The family, including Wanda Choate also of Burfordville, always come to this egg hunt. "We've probably been coming five years with Caleb and this is Haleigh's third year," Choate said.

Plans for the day included possibly participating in the 1 p.m. Kiwanis Park egg hunt.

The Dickson family of Cape Girardeau thought they might attend the Kiwanis Park hunt, too. The day had begun with 1-year-old Emilie hunting, followed by Mallory, who was too old to hunt, helping 5-year-old Hyrum hunt.

"I told them just to put a few in the basket and stop," said their mother, Brynda, who thought it was a good teaching experience. "If I let Mallory have a basket, it would be teaching her to be dishonest."

When the brother and sister returned, Mallory said, "We gave some eggs to someone who only got one, and some other guy gave them some, too."

Families were asked to return the emptied plastic eggs if they had no other use for them.

Before plastic was introduced, Betty Henson of Cape Girardeau was a Jaycee wife and dyed about 20 dozen eggs for the hunt. On an outing with her daughter-in-law, Betsy Buchheit, and three grandchildren, Sydney and Allison, both 3, and 40-month-old Kate, said, "We'll keep the tradition."

But egg hunting wasn't the only activity for children.

About 30 pictures were taken with the Easter bunny, and there were visits with the Texas Roadhouse Armadillo. Although some children were a little afraid of the armadillo, the Buchheit twins weren't.

Allison said, "He looks like an anteater."

cpagano@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133