The easter bunny came to the West Seattle Thriftway and Lincoln Park on Saturday March 30 dropping off a lot of eggs for kids to discover. Two events one at the store and the other by the West Seattle campus of Eastridge Church kept hundreds of children excited and busy.
West Seattle Thriftway held their 25th Anniversary Easter Egg Hunt on March 30 with the largest number of eggs at 35,000 they have ever had. They had hundreds of kids and parent lined up outside waiting for the Easter Bunny to open the event.
Owners Paul and Connie Kapioski were excited to see how many people showed up. The actual total of eggs was a little uncertain, "The last few years we've been doing recycling and it's hard to tell how many go in the recycle bin," Paul said. The eggs were all sorted and filled by Renton Highlands Community Church youth group led by Larry Maison. They got started around President's Day packing them with candy or prizes. The Bible Quiz team was part of the effort as dozens of volunteers got the job done.
154 prizes were waiting to be discovered including bicycles, a Nintendo Wii, Mariners tickets coloring books, all kinds of games, a bird feeder with an Audobon robin, Power Rangers and more.
Down at Lincoln Park, Eastridge Church had their event set up in the southern end of the park. This event is an outreach by the church to introduce them to those in the community who are unfamiliar. Pastor Josh Crandall said they had prepared 10,000 eggs for the event, all filled by volunteers at the church with a variety of candies. Prizes were also handed out in a drawing from registration. "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care," said Pastor Crandall, "what can we do to demonstrate love?"
"We're doing this out of love. That's what Jesus was about, and what we're called to be about. In a Christian circle this is like a bridge building event."
Pastor Steve Jamison, of the Issaquah campus of Eastridge was in attendance too. He said, "We redesigned the whole church and right now we're seeing really strong momentum even in the last six months." The church has added a children's ministry and offers teen programs in addition to their regular ministry.
"This is an outreach to let people know we want to be a great place for people to build their life and their family. That's why we're trying to equip parents with the tools and a good environment for them to be able to raise their kids and instill faith and values in them as a foundation for the future."
