By Coben Scott
The Easter Bunny came early to Falcon this year, laying roughly 10,000 eggs in the fields across from JAKs Brewery on April 12. The credit can’t solely be given to the bunny, since many in the community came together to make this event come to fruition under blue skies and warm weather.
Falcon High School football players helped hide the eggs, business owners volunteered for the aftermath of the egg hunt, and the Easter Bunny decided to stick around for photoshoots.
Starting at noon, Jellybean the Egg (this year’s mascot) was dancing for the kids, the eggs were hidden and a return tent for the eggs was set up. About 2,000 people made it out to the hunt, and it was a very fast egg hunt. Most of the children filled their baskets with eggs, sweeping the field clean within 10 minutes of the start. After collecting the eggs, children made their way to the tent to return the plastic eggs and collect the treats that were inside the eggs.
If some kids arrived late, there was still candy handed out at the tent, along with an option for everyone to take a photo with Jellybean the Egg. While observing the fast hunt, Samantha Sargent, a volunteer in the tent and owner of Connecting Communities 719, could be heard saying, “It’s crazy! It starts at 12 and by 12:02 it’s done!”
After the hunt, the party continued. At the corner of JAKs and the Purple Toad, people were milling about. Employees of both establishments were donning either bunny ears or Easter face paint. The Kona Ice truck sold snow cones. Inside JAKs, kids made thematic crafts, had tinsel streamed in their hair and had their faces painted — and they posed for a photo with the Easter Bunny. Jose Cazares, a real estate agent, helped herd people through the crowded picture queue. When asked about the event, he said, “We love it. We do a ton of stuff to get people and the community together, and it’s worked out great.”
Families enjoyed cornhole gams on the green between JAKs and Purple Toad and many stayed for the evening adult egg hunt.
Emily Nelson, JAKs general manager, said, “It is one of the biggest, if not Falcon’s biggest, event every year. We’ve been doing this for almost 10 years now, and it always brings out so many people. The families love it.”
Sophie and Emmett Webb were among the 2,000 people who attended JAKs Easter egg hunt.
Emily Nelson holds down the bar at JAKs while the kids look for Easter eggs.
It took just about 10 minutes for the kids to find all the hidden eggs.
