Every year, the day before Easter, the Kutztown Optimist Club holds an egg hunt up at the Kutztown Park. Hundreds of colorful eggs are laid in the grass, in the baseball field, even on the tennis courts. People come from all around the area to participate.
I asked Optimist Club member and “man in charge” Greg Bennicoff about the history and the role of the egg hunt in the community.
“We’ve been doing it for 18 years now… this is probably the biggest egg hunt we have in the area here, and the Optimist Club serves Kutztown, Fleetwood, Topton, and now Hamburg so there’s a lot of communities in the area.”
Bennicoff said that the club and the community really come together to organize events like this, and people love to help out and participate.
That word “community” kept popping up.
Connor O’Neil, a student at Kutztown High School, has been helping the Optimist Club set up since he was 2 years old.
Local mother Annie Schnore said, “It’s not really about the egg hunt. It’s about the community coming together.”
Her daughter Clara offered a contrasting opinion, “I like the candy!”
Local kids Rhea and Paityn Ziegler agreed that it’s about the candy for them.
Sasha Ziegler and her mother Laurel were on the same page, saying the event could be more aptly named an “Easter egg dash.”
I’m on their side with this one. Even in the younger age categories, all the eggs were scooped up in seconds. I heard someone yell, “They’re coming up the hill like the walking dead!” while watching the 6 to 8 year olds grab their eggs.
There’s a kind of unadulterated joy that accompanies events like these.
Mother Jennifer Alliston said she was looking forward to seeing a smile on her son’s face the most, as it was their first time at the egg hunt.
There’s egg hunts for people ages 0 to 16+, so no matter how old you are, you can keep coming back to the event year after year to swipe some eggs, get your picture taken with the Easter bunny, or just enjoy the scenery.