Kinsmen Easter Egg Hunt returns April 16

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The Tillsonburg Kinsmen Easter Egg Hunt is back.

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Kinsmen Easter Egg Hunt returns April 16 Back to video

On Saturday, April 16, 10 a.m. bring your children to the Kinsmen Bandshell area of Memorial Park for a free chocolate egg hunt.

“There’s a lot of excitement out there for it,” said Tillsonburg Kinsmen Club’s Cedric Tomico. “So we said ‘let’s get going on it.’ It might be the first big community-wide thing that Tillsonburg has seen in quite some time.

“People have been asking for it, so we want to get the message out,” said Tomico, noting early response to their Easter Egg Hunt announcement on social media has been one of pure excitement. “The Tillsonburg Kinsmen heard the cry so here it is, we’re answering the call.”

“Come join us for the hunt, food and special prizes,” Tomico wrote on the Kinsmen Facebook page. “Line up early and this one will most certainly break records!”

The Kinsmen Club had planned a 30^th anniversary Easter Egg Hunt in 2020 but it was postponed that spring due to COVID-19, and again in 2021.

More than 19,000 foil-wrapped chocolate eggs had been collected by children in 2018, and in 2019 about 200-250 children gathered up nearly 23,000 chocolate eggs.

This year the Kinsmen plan to top those recent years with even more chocolate – and they hope to see even more children.

“Let’s hope we get good weather,” said Tomico, noting it is rain or shine. “I think this will break records. People are just craving to get anything like this, it’s been limited for so long. I think it’s going to be great.”

As of Feb. 17, organized outdoor public events in Ontario have had no capacity limits.

“We’re trying to think of other potential excitement for it,” Tomico noted.

The Kinsmen will be partnering with the Tillsonburg Kinettes who will fundraise by selling hot dogs on site as in past years.

“I think we’re going to have another Kinsmen executive meeting soon just because there is so much excitement about it. We are thinking, ‘What else can we do with this? What can we add to it? How can we bring in another partner, whether it’s another service organization or somebody else?’ Maybe the fire department, maybe they could bring in a ladder truck? The kids love that.”

The Easter Egg Hunt concept is a simple one. Several areas in Memorial Park near the Kinsmen Bandshell are designated for different age groups. At the sound of a horn, children rush from the starting areas to pick up foil-wrapped chocolate distributed through the fields by a team of Kinsmen volunteers earlier that morning.

Parents assist the youngest children.

The event is free and there is no registration. All your children need are baskets (or bags or pails or whatever is convenient to hold the chocolate).

cabbott@postmedia.com