Easter Egg Hunt Goes Bad

I remember a few years back, we were hosting an Easter Egg Hunt at Greensfield Park in Johnson City. It was chilly day, but it was tolerable. All the parents brought their kids out to get eggs filled with candy and the chance to win new bikes as well as other prizes.

All the employees of the stations helped put the eggs out and cover them with hay. We had the kids line up against the fence on the baseball field. It was a few minutes before the “Hunt” was supposed to start, so to kill time, the D.J. that was on the PA started talking. He asked everyone how they were doing and if they were excited to be there? They are kids that have a chance to gab all the candy they can. Do you have to ask if they are excited? He said “we have a few minutes before the hunt starts so who wants to do the wave? He continued, “ok on the count of three, one, two, three.” Instead of doing the wave, the kids took off for the hay covered infield to grab their treasures. The PA guy starts yelling, “stop, stop, go back”. Some of the volunteers almost got trampled as they were trying to get off the field. Some of the volunteers took their lives in their hands as they  stood between the kids and they candy with their arms in the air saying “stop, go back”. They are lucky they weren’t killed. Never stand between a kid and a field full of candy. A few kids turned around and went back to the fence, but the majority just ignored Pete with the microphone in his hand and started filling their baskets. As that point he had to surrender and let the other kids join in the fun.

We all laughed about it pretty hard except our boss who was pretty pissed. In retrospect, It was pretty stupid to do any kind of countdown. But all in all the kids got their candy and if anything, we got to go home a few minutes earlier.