Egg hunt a special event for children

A 5-foot, 8-inch rabbit was seen walking about the E.L. Johnson Memorial Park, and although several were reluctant to approach him, it received a few hugs or high fives. 

The big bunny, aka Plains resident Logan Wall, 14, was part of the annual Plains Easter Egg Hunt put on by the Assembly of God Church on the Move and the Plains Lions Club Sunday afternoon. An estimated 130 children from nearly 1-10 years old took part in the egg retrieval event. 

"We love our community and we wanted to make this special for the kids, especially since we didn't do it last year," said Jessica Peterson of the Church on the Move. "It's like bringing the community back together again," she added. This is the third year that the Lions Club and the church have combined forces to put on the event. Lion Ken Matthiesen feels the club has a good partnership with the church. He also said that the present location is a better venue than having the egg hunt where they used to hold it at Fred Young Park. The Lions Club started the Easter event more than 40 years ago. The Church on the Move had been conducting its own event for about 20 years, before teaming up with the Lions in 2017. 

Peterson, who has helped coordinate the egg hunt for three years, believes there were probably 300 people at the event this year. The kids were divided into five age groups – 0-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, and 9-10. The two older groups had the largest areas and the most eggs. Dozens of the eggs for the 9-10 year olds were placed on the playground equipment. The kids, some dressed in their Sunday best, used baskets, tote bags, purses, and garbage bags to retrieve eggs. Once done, they found a quiet spot to go through their booty.

Two groups also had a special prize - new bicycles - compliments of First Security Bank. Winners of the bikes were Avery Olesen of Thompson Falls and Kinsley Josephson of Plains. Josephson won a bike two years ago.

Assembly of God Church volunteers stuffed the thousands of eggs on Thursday. It took church volunteers about two hours to "hide" the eggs Sunday morning. Eggs were filled with candy and money. Each age group made a dash for the eggs before the next group was allowed to go. The egg recovery took only about 15 minutes, but there were other activities for the children. The Lions Club had two tables full of toys – sunglasses, pinwheels, cards, footballs, and markers, to name a few. Kids could each take one toy. They could also register to have their name pulled for a selection of other prizes.    

Most of the attendees were Plains residents, but there were also people from throughout Sanders County, as well as Missoula, Kalispell, Idaho, and Washington. "We had a pretty good turnout and more than enough prizes," said Matthiesen. Whitney Tanner-Spurr had 6-week-old rabbits that people could pet and kids could get their photo taken with. Her husband, Steve, the Lions' vice president, served as emcee. The Plains Woman's Club set up an arts and crafts table.