Submitted
The 48th annual Kiwanis Club Easter Egg Hunt will be at 9:00 a.m., Saturday at Fort Hays State University. The event is for kids 10 and under and involves searching for eggs filled with candy, coins and gift certificates.
"For decades, this has been a fun-filled, successful community event that happens every Easter weekend," said Kiwanis Club President Chuck White.
The Kiwanis Club gets help stuffing and hiding the thousands of eggs from volunteer organizations such as FHSU's Circle K club and the Thomas More Prep-Marian Builders Club and Key Club. All three clubs are Kiwanis International programs.
"We are stuffing about 6,000 eggs, so it takes a couple of hours to fill all of those the day before the hunt, and then the next morning, it takes the kiddos about two minutes to find those 6,000 eggs," White said.
The first egg hunt took place in 1974. While it still took just minutes for the kids to find all the eggs, there is one big difference today.
"We still have a few club members that were around back then that remember the eggs actually being hard-boiled eggs that they had to dye the day before in different colors," White said. "But along came the plastic eggs with the candy, which kids seem to enjoy."
The event starts at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday in the Quad area at FHSU. Different age groups from 0-2 up to 9-10 will be split into sections before the Easter egg hunt begins to ensure the search is as fair as possible. The Easter Bunny will also be on-site for photos.