More than 2,000 people attended the return of the Eggstravaganza Easter egg hunt at Central Park on Saturday.
The egg hunt, which lasted just 10 minutes, returned to the soccer fields in the south end of the park — which was divided into four sections based on age (3 and under, 4 and 5, 6 and 7, and 8 through 10), a feature that many parents appreciated.
“I liked that they had it separated by age, so that was nice, and then all of our kids weren’t trampled by the bigger kids,” said Samantha Barker, there with her husband, Brian, and their three children.
Event organizers said once the hunt began, kids had more than 20,000 eggs to choose from as they began their search.
However, there was a slight mishap at the beginning. As Kyle Lopez, event supervisor for the city of Santa Clarita, began to list the instructions for the hunt, she said the word “start” as she was explaining how the countdown would work.
Kids mistook this as their cue and began flooding the fields. Even though Lopez asked them to return back to the starting line, a lot of children didn’t and some just went in during the countdowns.
But there was an easy fix — those who did not receive an egg were given one, either by staff or other generous children. Lopez said their excitement was one of her favorite parts about the event.
“I think it’s probably the excitement of kids, you know? Seeing the excitement of them running. I mean, I didn’t even get to do my countdown, they were so excited. I pumped them up and they just swarmed,” said Lopez. “So I think part of the excitement of the kids just to see them running and then opening the eggs and wondering if they won a prize.”
Brian said although it was quite the swarm, he appreciated how safe it was — even for his littlest one.
“The fun part was it was actually pretty safe. You know, we come here and there’s tons of people around. So even with our 1-year-old here, I was following her around and she got some eggs, which is good,” said Brian. “You think the little kids wouldn’t be able to get anything. And then there was one part where she had a bunch of eggs around here and there’s just a swarm of kids that came by, scooped up all the rest of the eggs but like, in a safe way, which, as parents were very appreciative of.”
Event organizers said they’re thankful the weather was forgiving and that a lapse in rain storms helped make the event possible — only the second after being postponed during the pandemic.
Eggstravaganza was also a food drive for the Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry, which was able to collect approximately 5,000 cans and packages of non-perishable food.
