SHREWSBURY – The Easter Bunny wasn’t the only thing hopping on March 30.
Hundreds of energetic, eager children gathered at Dean Park for an “Eggstravaganza!” The event – hosted by the Shrewsbury Recreation Department and sponsored by Shrewsbury Federal Credit Union and Thrive Real Estate Specialists – featured over 10,000 brightly colored plastic eggs strewn throughout the park.
The Recreation Department started planning the event in January, but with thousands of eggs to stuff, it took help from dozens of volunteers from around town.
“It was a community effort. The senior center’s Council on Aging stuffed almost 2,000 eggs. The RISE students also stuffed about 2,000 eggs. It was like, ‘We have all this stuff, and we’re on a timeline!’ And people just jumped in and helped. They filled them, we picked them up and it was wonderful,” said Director of Recreation Laurel Rossiter.
With plenty of eggs to go around, Dean Park was divided into different “age zones.” Younger egg-seekers searched in one corner of the field, while 6- through 10-year-old participants sauntered through the softball fields. Older participants looked through the bandstand area of the park, and the Recreation Department offered sensory-friendly egg hunting on the nearby tennis courts.
The theme of the event was inclusion, Rossiter said.
As part of that effort, the event did not require registration and was free of cost to the community. The beautiful weather and thousands of eggs drew many participants, and Dean Park was packed.
“We really wanted to see how many people we could welcome to Dean Park today,” Rossiter said.
The event included much more than egg hunting. Children created crafts, met the Easter Bunny and were treated to donuts and grilled cheeses from food trucks.
“If you come to the park, 10,000 eggs will probably be gone [quickly]. To expand it a little, the bunny will be available under the balloon arch and we have crafts. We tried to make it a little more involved,” Rossiter said.
