A Christian holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Easter also symbolizes rebirth, hope and new life with a variety of celebrations and activities that range from sunrise services and family feasts to traditional egg hunts.
In Philomath, the community has enjoyed a nondenominational Easter egg hunt through the years, an annual event that in 2022 was taken over by the Philomath Frolic and Rodeo organization.
This year’s edition will begin just after 10 a.m. and take note of the new location — Philomath High School’s Clemens Field.
“We always start at 10:02 because you never want to show up two minutes late to an Easter egg hunt,” smiled organizer Chris Workman of the Frolic and Rodeo. “So, plan to be there by 10 and we’ll hold it for you till 10:02.”
The football field will be sectioned off into age groups — 3 and under, ages 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 and 10-11. Children will need to bring their own basket for collecting eggs..
“We always start with the youngest first and then work our way up,” Workman said. “That way, if there are parents with multiple-age kids, they can get photos and do that stuff at each one as opposed to trying to be in four different places at once.”
The free event will feature appearances by the Easter bunny and the Frolic and Rodeo queen and princess — all will be available for photo opps.
Workman started looking for a new venue for the Easter egg hunt because of the ongoing construction project at the rodeo grounds.
“We didn’t want to put families and kids in harm’s way and try to coordinate that crowd control with all the equipment there so we reached out to the school district,” Workman said.
Compared to the rodeo grounds, the high school’s field might be a bit drier.
“I like that it’s got the track all the way around it so you’ve got a dry feet spot and plenty of room to sit and watch,” Workman said. “There’s a lot to like about it.”
Next year’s Easter egg hunt will likely be off the usual site as well with the second phase of the rodeo arena project expected to be occurring.
The organizers pay attention to the number of eggs that will be hidden for each age group as they look at past statistics and take various factors into account, such as speedier 10- and 11-year-olds to the slower and more methodical toddlers.
Last year at the rodeo grounds, the Easter Egg hunt was the Frolic’s largest ever with 380 kids and 70 teens and adults participating. For the kids, participation has gone from 265 in 2022 to 203 in 2023 to last year’s 380.
“There’s no trend there so we’re planning for that 380 to 400 number,” Workman said. “A lot of it depends on the weather. If it’s raining out, you might not get as many.”
Workman typically makes an announcement to parents before each age group if there are limits on how many eggs a single child should collect. But even though there may be a cutoff number, he added that he’s never really ever noticed any children hoarding eggs.
“The thing I really love about it is we’ve always asked for people to empty the eggs, keep the candy, keep the prize, and put the eggs back into the tubs,” Workman said. “Then we wash those out and use them again next year.”
Reusing as many eggs as possible helps keep the costs low.
“We still end up ordering new eggs every year because they get broken or damaged,” Workman said. “But if we had to buy 8,000 to 10,000 eggs every year, it would get fairly expensive for us. So most of the eggs are given back and recycled.”
The prizes inside the eggs will be a little different this year.
“In addition to candy, we’re doing some stickers, some tattoos, some little erasers and things,” Workman said. “We’re kind of expanding the prizes in the eggs a little bit just to make it a little bit more interesting besides just having candy in all of them.”
With the Easter egg hunt not at the rodeo grounds, the Golden Egg Hunt for ages 12 and older will not be taking place in mud this year.
“We’ll still have eggs with candy prizes but they will have cash in them as well,” Workman said, adding that there will be some eggs with $20, $10, $5 and $1 bills. There is a $5 entry fee for the Golden Egg Hunt.
“It pays for itself — we just try to break even on it,” Workman said, not revealing the exact location of the event — although it will be in the vicinity of the football field. “If everybody chips in $5, that pays for all of the prize money.”
