Colored eggs found in Moses Lake park
Children collect eggs during the Moses Lake Lions Club Easter Egg Hunt.
MOSES LAKE - Families lined the sidewalks in McCosh Park Saturday morning waiting to pick up eggs sitting on the grass.
Moses Lake Lions Club member Dennis Foster said 450 dozen hard-boiled eggs and 60 dozen plastic eggs were placed on the grass for the 16th annual Lions Club Easter Egg Hunt.
The event seems to attract more children every year, Foster said, adding the club starts preparing a month in advance with putting plastic eggs together and making arrangements to cook and color the rest.
"The actual hard-core preparation usually happens this week as far as cooking the eggs," he said. "We start two hours before the event getting set up."
Foster said the club received help from the Columbia Basin Job Corps, who cooked and dyed the roughly 5,400 hard-boiled eggs for the hunt. Willamette Farms sold the eggs at a discount to the Columbia Basin Herald, who provided them to the Moses Lake Lions Club as a sponsor.
"When I cooked two boxes of eggs in my house last year, it took me two days," he said. "(The Columbia Basin Job Corps) really helped us out. They lightened the work load on a lot of people by doing that."
Children and their family members stood behind plastic tape waiting to pick up the eggs, which dotted the lawn of the park. When Foster announced the start, the children ran onto the field, scooping the eggs up and putting them into baskets. They cleared the fields within minutes.
"About 10 minutes after it's over, we're done. It's fast," Foster said. "Before we start, you can barely see the grass for all the eggs and then 30 seconds later, there is not an egg to be seen."
Inside some of the plastic eggs were slips of paper indicating the child won a prize basket.
One of the winners, Jordan Hill, said he went to the hunt trying to win.
"It was really fun because I've been going here for five years now and this is my first time winning," he said. "It was pretty exciting for me to win."