A Farmington neighborhood hunt in the spirit of the season

• Photo: Neighborhood egg hunt

Dozens of kids charge foward to collect their share of Easter eggs during a neighborhood hunt last week. Gina Meihofer has been holding the event for the past 10 years and filled 1,500 eggs for this year’s hunt.

Talk about it

It starts, as these things often do, with a mad dash. Children scramble across four adjoining yards in search of the colorful plastic eggs that dot the grass and sit nestled in tree branches. Younger kids scour the nearby yards, while older hunters sprint to the far end of the field.

It’s a little bit noisy and a little bit chaotic, but it also looks like a lot of fun.

Gina Meihofer is definitely enjoying herself, and she’s not even involved in the hunt. She’s the one who organized the event, which took place Thursday in a yard filled with neighbors, friends and relatives. The event has become a tradition, and attendance has nearly tripled since she started holding it 10 years ago. New neighbors move in, and old neighbors keep coming back to visit.

That’s just fine with Meihofer, who calls Easter her favorite day of the year. The party and the egg hunt are her way of sharing the joy she feels this time of year.

“I just love to see kids have fun and smile and just enjoy the whole season of Easter, the meaning of Easter,” Meihofer said. “It’s just a way to shine God’s light.”

This year’s event was nearly ideal. The sun was shining and the day was warm. Other years, the weather has been less appealing. Last year, kids hunted for eggs in the snow. Other years parents have huddled under Meihofer’s deck while their kids searched in the rain.

Pulling the hunt off takes a lot of work. Meihofer had about 50 people in her backyard Thursday night. She fed them hot dogs and bratwurst, then set the kids loose to collect their plastic treasures.

Meihofer and a few neighbors spent hours over the course of four days filling 1,500 plastic eggs with candy for the hunt. Kids went out in waves, collecting 10 eggs each time to make sure everybody had a chance to get something.

Meihofer has two children of her own. Both are nearly too old for the hunt now.

That doesn’t seem to matter, though. It seems unlikely Meihofer’s celebration will disappear any time soon.

“It just brings so much joy to not only the kids but the adults,” she said.

And maybe to Meihofer most of all.

Tags: farmington, news