Ready, set, go hunt!
On Saturday afternoon, about 150 children ran across the First Christian Church lawn, collecting eggs in the church’s fourth annual community-wide Easter egg hunt, which it hosted in partnership with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and the Community Benefit Committee.
Pastor Lavelle Smith said anyone and everyone was invited to the egg hunt as a way to connect with others during the Easter season.
“For me, Easter is the greatest holiday. It’s my favorite holiday,” Smith said. “As Christians, and Christians of faith, without the resurrection of Jesus Christ… we’d be hopeless. So this is a special time of year for me as a pastor, and it’s a great opportunity to use things like egg hunts that the kids are used to … to build rapport in the community.”
Smith said there were about 4,000 eggs up for grabs between the two waves of kids that hunted, divided by age group. The first age group was for children below 5 years old, while the second was for anyone over 5 years old.
The crowd, Smith said, was slightly larger than the church’s egg hunt the year before, though they also had to move the previous hunt to Easter Sunday due to rain.
With so many eggs and participants, Smith said, the Easter egg hunt took a few weeks to put together. The church asked for prizes and candy from the community, though they also bought pre-filled eggs to help with the process. Having the sheriff’s office and the Community Benefit Committee on their side, he said, also helped.
Sheriff Eddie Hawkins said helping with the egg hunt also helps the sheriff’s office to connect with the community better.
“It’s a win-win for everything,” Hawkins said. “Of course, the kids have a lot of fun doing it.”
Both the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and the Community Benefit Committee helped to collect toys for the Easter egg hunt, Hawkins said. Inside of some of the eggs, there were prize slips hidden, where kids could trade in the piece of paper for the toys.
LCSO Lt. Rhonda Sanders, who is also president of the Community Benefit Committee, said she loves getting to support the egg hunt as a way to build rapport with the community and to see all the fun the kids have.
“Just seeing the smile on the kids’ faces is priceless,” Sanders said.
Almost every child walked away with a full basket or bucket of Easter eggs when the event was over.
Abigail Doughty, 10, said she had a lot of fun getting to actually run out and pick up the eggs. She was proud of how many eggs she collected, but said she has plans to do even better next year. Her younger sister, Swayze Doughty, 4, had fewer reservations.
“I got prizes,” Swayze said with a smile.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 38 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
