A race for Easter's harvest
Beautiful weather brings out hundreds for Stafford County Parks and Recreation's annual Eggsplosion in Curtis Park
BY CATHY JETT
Date published: 3/16/2008
BY CATHY JETT
With her Easter basket clutched tight, 6-year-old Kacey Wright of Spotsylvania County was a girl on a mission.
Her goal was to stay ahead of the other 5- to 7-year-olds in yesterday's Eggsplosion Easter egg hunt at Curtis Park in Stafford County.
As Derrick Carr, the county Parks and Recreation Department's assistant mana-ger for community recreation, gave the signal, Kacey raced across the grassy field to where the pickings were more plentiful. The herd of other children was hot on her heels.
"Keep going, Kacey!" yelled her dad, Greg Wright. "Go deep! Go deep!"
Blond hair flying, Kacey raced from one brightly colored plastic egg to the next, scooping them up and dumping them into her basket. By the time she reached the end of the field, her basket was filled with about 30.
"High five!" cheered her mom, Karen Wright. "You worked hard."
Kacey's friends Heather Jaloway, 5, of Falmouth and Zaccheri Fricchione, 4, of Spotsylvania weren't so lucky. They didn't make it to the starting line in time, and had to watch the wave of other children sweep across the field.
Kacey, with a little urging from her mom, dipped into her basket and shared some of her eggs. Heather gave her a hug, then the three children ran off to trade the eggs for gift bags containing small stuffed animals, candy and coupons for chicken nuggets at Chick-fil-A.
Eggsplosion is a family-oriented tradition in Stafford. It started as a simple Easter egg hunt 23 years ago, then expanded five years later to make it more of a festival, said Sheila Newton, the Parks and Recreation Department's senior recreation manager.
This year's event, which drew about 1,500 people, included pony rides, moon bounces and Jonathan Austin's 24-Hour Emergency Juggling and Magic Service act. Several food vendors were on hand as well.
Newton said earlier predictions of rain on Saturday kept her and her staff glued to the Weather Channel until Friday, when it seemed likely the sun would shine after all.
"We had a big flood of people calling [Friday] for advance tickets," she said.
Kathy Johnson, customer service manager for Stafford's utilities department, enjoys the Eggsplosion so much that she phones her daughter, Amy Heiman, 33, of Centreville as soon as she gets the date so they can mark their calendars.
"They don't have anything like this in Centreville," she said.
Johnson, her daughter and her son-in-law were there yesterday with the Heimans' 4-year-old daughter Maggie and son Jake, who's 2. Maggie was so excited at the prospect of hunting for Easter eggs that she barely slept Friday, while Jake was thrilled to see the a county firetruck on display.
But as the Eggsplosion neared its close at 3 p.m., the children were worn out and ready to go home.
Cathy Jett: 540/374-5407
Email: cjett@freelancestar.com
Date published: 3/16/2008
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