Easter Egg Hunts Draws Hundreds to the ‘Little City’

Overcast skies, a little mud and a nippy chill in the air wasn’t enough to keep 4-year-old Samuel Mackenzie from his first Easter egg hunt.

Mackenzie found lots of packaged candy and five plastic eggs in Cherry Hill Park Saturday morning during the City of Falls Church annual Easter Egg Hunt. With his parents and 2-year-old brother with him, Mackenzie summed up what was the best part of his first Easter egg hunt.

“Finding the Easter eggs and putting them in my basket,” Mackenzie said was the highlight of his experience.

Hundreds of children attended the event finding several eggs and candy. Daniel Schlitt, director of the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks, was prepared to postpone the annual event Saturday because of expected rain. The event was broken down into three age groups: three and under, four to six and seven to 11, Schlitt said. Besides the candy and colorful plastic eggs scattered throughout the park, children were also able to take pictures with the “Easter Bunny.”

Regina Mackenzie, Samuel’s mother, of Falls Church, had called the recreation and parks inclement weather line Saturday morning and was glad to hear the Easter egg hunt was scheduled as planned. She said she was glad she could bring her two sons to the event.

“We knew they would like it,” she said of the event. “We called and checked the weather.”

Schlitt said it was questionable if the weather would allow the egg hunt to go on Saturday. He said he went out to the park early Saturday to check the conditions of the park and didn’t find any standing water.

“We realized prior to 8:30 a.m. that we were going to be able to do it,” Schlitt said. “It’s better to have the Easter egg hunt the Saturday before Easter instead of the Monday after.”

Erika Fagan and her 2-year-old daughter arrived just as the egg hunt was starting. She said her daughter didn’t find any eggs but she found lots of candy. Fagan said it was her daughter’s first egg hunt and she didn’t know what to do.

“We thought it would be a fun activity,” Fagan said. “I had no idea it would be such a big event.”