OSWEGO, NY – Nearly 1,000 children, some a couple months old, roamed Breithbeck Park on Saturday.
They “hunted” for more than 4,000 colorful plastic Easter eggs scattered around the park – mostly in plain sight.
The eggs contained a variety of goodies.
An army of volunteers filled the eggs, scattered them around the hunt area and several business and organizations donated items for the prizes.
Scores of parents were also on hand.
The annual event was conducted by the Kiwanis Club in concert with the Oswego City-County Youth Bureau.
The youngest children raced into the egg laden park at 10 a.m. By 10:05 a.m., the eggs were procured and the kids headed back to their parents to display their goodies.
An older group hunted at 10:30 a.m. and a relaxed hunt was scheduled at 11 a.m. for special needs youngsters.
“It looks like we had a lot more younger kids than last year,” said volunteer organizer Jennifer Losurdo of the Youth Bureau.
Due to the chilly weather, the raffles, handing out prizes and other activities were held in the pavilion.
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yeah my wife brought our 2 year old and she said there were adults literally reaching over our son to grab eggs that were right in front of him for their own children…pretty distasteful if you ask me. Next year, maybe have the parents just watch and let the children have fun.
Corraling a thousand kids is a massive job. Too bad some parents allow their own greed to ruin it for someone else’s child, but it will always be this way. I would tell the parent that had to help his child in this situation to do his/her best to allow the baby/toddler to just relax. NEXT year his child may not be anywhere near one of these greedy people. And in another few years, it will be a moot point.
Maybe there is a way for the very youngest to be in a separate area, and I agree, maybe the parents aren’t allowed in. Ten kids at a time, and then, Mom and Dad take them out of there and the next group goes in. The attention span of a toddler is around 10-15 minutes anyway! And most of them are satisfied with three or four eggs anyway.
Still, with limited volunteers the Kiwanis/Youth Bureau does what it can each year to make this event even POSSIBLE! I remember when it wasn’t on for several years, and have been happy to see it go on again. Also, a few churches have these hunts, too, so if it’s a trial for parents, a smaller venue might work better.
My child has vivid memories of her scavenger hunting events. I don’t think she has any serious memories of these greedy parents, but I suspect they have always been with us. So, it’s other parents that get irritated. The kids are in it for only the fun!
There was a smaller area (with a ton of eggs) for the real young children, up to 4 years old I think That’s where some folks got grabby On the other side of the coin, there were some 5-7 year olds that shared eggs with others who only got a couple – or none at all
Absolutely no organization whatsoever to the point where it was dangerous. Event staff were rude or just Standing thete with their arms crossed except for that one young tall guy who actually heard out all the parents complaints, you’re the true hero.
The egg hunt was very organized and not dangerous what so ever! It takes alot of hard work and planning to do this event for hundreds and hundreds of kids to have 2 people complain. The staff were not rude they were trying to keep parents in line to not ruin it for the kids. When you have a FREE event there should be NO complaints!