Children made a mad dash to collect as many eggs as possible during the ninth annual Easter Eggventure at Bethlehem SCV in Canyon Country on Saturday.
Families gathered for some early Easter fun with face painting, a bounce house, ring tossing and free hot dogs.
“A couple weeks beforehand, I get the teachers used to doing it,” preschool teacher Angela Ferrara said of the face painting. “We practice on the kids during school time, so a lot of times, kids go home with bunny faces on (their own faces).”
Children also were able to play on play sets, and church pastors presented an animated video for them to watch about the history and meaning behind the Easter holiday.
“Each year we try to make it a little easier for families to navigate, so like our face painting – the lines aren’t so long,” said Pastor John Koczman. “The Easter egg hunt we’ve repeated over and over again, (where we) divide the kids into smaller groups so that little ones don’t get trampled by older ones. Those are things we’ve learned the more we’ve done it.”
The continuous egg hunt was at the center of the Eggventure. With 10 hunts throughout the day, the hunts took place on the church lawn with a total of 3,000 eggs at the ready.
One father, Ru Liu, waited in line for the egg hunt with his son Kingston. He said his son would likely have his face painted after he collected some eggs.
“I’m reminded of Jesus in the New Testament saying, ‘Let the little children come to me and don’t hinder them, because the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these,’” said Pastor Joe Beran. “So as Christians, we celebrate the gift of children and everything they bring.”
Families also had the option to donate canned food for the Santa Clarita Grocery, which has a partnership with Bethlehem SCV.
