3D Challenge Maze Madness Egg Hunt in Stephens City

Stephens City UMC Missions Chair Cathy Barley was tasked with organizing a Community Easter Egg Hunt. The church had been actively attempting to reach their Stephens City neighbors and what better way than to sponsor an event on the Newtown Commons off Main Street. Barley wanted to make the event both a church and community collaboration and the Newtown Commons, located right in the middle of town, would allow the residents of Stephens City to conveniently walk with their families to the event and enjoy the festivities. The Newtown Commons parking lot holds approximately 120 vehicles, so the event could attract a large crowd.

After several team meetings and months of preparation, the church was ready to host their first Easter Egg Hunt in April 2022. Barley knew there was still something missing. To keep all the children engaged, the plan included having four separate egg hunts, for ages 0-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12. But how to motivate young teens to hunt for eggs. Usually, egg hunts are planned for children 3–8-years-old.

Cathy Barley met with chancel choir member Dave Marchand to discuss building a challenge maze to make it difficult for 10–12-year-olds to collect plastic eggs. Marchand sketched out a drawing to build a 3D Challenge Maze structure 20’ x 20’ with a height of 8-1/2’ on the walls, with two center posts that are 10’ high, two bunny flags flying on the center posts. Blue stretch would wrap around the bottom of the structure used to improve the difficulty, screen the eggs, and provide some added stability. The structure could not be too large because it might become too unwieldly to build and sustain. Marchand drew the structure on drawing software to check lengths of materials.

The structure would be built using steel fence posts, PVC tubing, rope, colorful string, hula hoops and pool noodles. Dave Marchand purchased all the necessary materials and drilled and prepared all the posts. Additional volunteers were needed to “string” the walls to make it more convoluted and difficult to move around (simulating a maze). Eggs would be lying on the ground and strung high up on ropes.

The 3D Challenge Maze Madness egg hunting would be the last event of the afternoon. It appeared the Challenge Maze would be a success when kids began to gather around the colorful structure an hour prior to the event. Never seeing one before, they tried to strategize in advance, how they could quickly move about the maze to gather as many of the 1,000 eggs as possible. This activity is especially beneficial for youngsters to help develop motor skills. By solving the maze, kids learn how to control their hands and fingers to navigate through the string walls while collecting eggs. Younger children also gathered around the maze, curious as they observed how this newfangled egg hunt would all play out.

The 3D structure takes three or four volunteers about four hours to set up and then additional time to take down and transport to a storage area for reuse next year.

After three very successful Easter egg hunts in the Newtown Commons, the 3D Challenge Maze has become the crowd favorite as adults and children always hang around until 2:30 pm to watch the 10-12-year-olds gear up for maze madness and hustle for eggs filled with candy and prizes.

Dave Marchand plans to tinker with the 3D structure during the summer months and next year he might be making further improvements in design, adding new levels of encounter and complexity to ensure the 3D challenge maze madness continues for the 2025 Palm Sunday weekend festivities.

The egg hunt is fast becoming one of Stephens City's most anticipated outdoor events and is a splendid time for bringing families together one week before celebrating Easter Sunday.

Stephens City UMC would like to offer a special thank you to The Town of Stephens City who graciously placed our event flyers in their newsletter mailings and made the flyer available to town residents at their office on Locust Street.

A shout-out to Chief Bill Copp and Stephen City police officers for providing supervision and promoting safety around the Newtown Commons during the egg hunt.