Jaycee Jenckes, assistant director at the Farmington Parks & Recreation Department, and Director Matt Foster reimagined the town’s annual Easter Egg Hunt this year.
At 7 a.m. on Sunday, it’s game on looking for six golden eggs carefully hidden in three of the town’s parks.
Children 10 and under can turn the eggs in for prizes next week.
Now where to find them? Think like a bunny or think like Jenckes. . .
Name: Jaycee Jenckes
Lives: Wilton
Age: 22
Job: Assistant director, Farmington Parks and Recreation Department
What will this year’s Easter Egg Hunt entail? This year the Farmington Recreation Department will be doing things a little differently, hiding only six golden eggs through three of our parks. There will be two hidden at Hippach Field, two at Walton’s Mill Pond Park and two at Meeting House Park. If you can find the golden eggs, when you open it there will be a number and some candy inside. Anytime that week when we are open, you can bring your egg and number into the Community Center and we will give you a big special prize Easter basket that corresponds with that number!
Why the change from putting out 500 Easter eggs for children to find? When we were putting out so many eggs, we felt it was a little overwhelming for the kids. They would arrive and there were so many eggs that collecting your 10 eggs could be done in just a few minutes and there wasn’t any reason to explore or run around the park. It was nice for parents with little toddlers, but anyone older it wasn’t very fun for them. We are hoping that this year, families will head out to our parks and really explore and have some fun searching for those golden eggs with the special prize!
How many years have you put together an Easter hunt? This is the third year and it’s been done a little differently each year. We want to keep trying to improve and do new things each year until we find an event that really engages the whole community, and one that people will hopefully look forward to each year.
Is it difficult to find places to hide the eggs? There are always places to hide the eggs, it is always just a matter of how hard do we want it to be to find the eggs. Last year we hid a golden egg with a special prize very well, but the rest were just scattered in the grass and bushes and mostly in plain sight. This year where we’re are only putting out six eggs total, they are going to be pretty tricky to find. We want kids to really go and search our parks and use their thinking caps to imagine where they might have put the eggs themselves if they were trying to hide them!
How do the children react when they find an egg? The toddlers and young children are always extremely excited, their faces light up when they find the eggs and realize they are about to get some candy or a special prize. Easter is such a fun holiday to plan special prizes and we think kids really love the idea of searching for something and then being rewarded for finding it, it’s like a game for them.
Is the effort you put in worth the joy it brings children? Always. We obviously are known for our sports programs and putting those on each year with tons of kids, but we can’t explain how much we love events like our Easter Egg Hunt that are for families and get people into the parks that we love so much, exploring and enjoying time together. It really allows us to reach a different part of the community that we may not see other parts of the year and we can’t wait to see who our lucky winners are. We will be posting pictures on our Facebook page when the children come in to redeem their egg for their special prize so stay tuned and get out there and enjoy the day.
dperry@sunmediagroup.net
Jaycee Jenckes (Submitted photo)
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