NORTHBOROUGH – At 9 a.m., over 3,000 eggs were scattered on the Algonquin football field.
Come 9:03 a.m., almost every egg had been collected.
Despite cold weather and rain that delayed the event one day, hundreds of eager egg hunters gathered at Algonquin Regional High School on the morning of March 24 for the National Honor Society’s annual Spring Egg Hunt. This was the first year that the school’s new turf field was used for the event.
“Our main focus is service as the National Honor Society. We wanted the high schoolers to put together a program to prepare the eggs, to prepare the hunt, and then today it’s really important for them to see the kids and how happy they are. They’re going to take pictures with the Easter Bunny, they’re going to get a bunch of candy, they’re going to be on a ‘sugar high.’ It’s important that the students are running it and they see how happy these kids are,” Colleen Roy, the Algonquin National Honor Society adviser, told the Community Advocate.
The event, which was free to the public, drew a large crowd. Children had the opportunity to take pictures with the Easter Bunny, play tug-of-war and participate in other outdoor activities with the high school students. Of course, the highlight of the event was the egg hunt; children ran up and down the field to accumulate candy-filled plastic eggs.
With so many children – and so many eggs – it took the Algonquin National Honor Society time to prepare the event. The society has been planning the event since December.
“There was definitely a lot of work put on before and after school by all of our members. We had multiple meetings where we had all of our members just stuffing eggs. We had extra volunteers after school to really hit that 3,000 number… We really wanted to make it special,” said Algonquin National Honor Society Vice President Tessa James.
Algonquin National Honor Society members each donated at least 100 pieces of candy to fill the eggs. Despite arriving at Algonquin at roughly 7:30 a.m. to “hide” the eggs, volunteers were full of energy, donning bunny ears, helping the participating children fill their baskets and assisting with the outdoor games.
“All these students are super committed. They’re super reliable students. I think every single person who said that they were going to be here made it. They came bright in the morning and set up. Nobody is just sitting around and not doing anything,” Algonquin National Honor Society Secretary Lindsay Ogar said.
