Get egg-cited
Kids, start practicing your egg-hunting skills: the annual Beach Kids Foundation hunt is on this weekend.
In collaboration with the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District and Bay Oaks Recreation Campus, the Beach Kids Foundation will once again hold its annual Easter egg hunt Saturday, April 15.
The hunt is open to all children – residents or visitors in for the holiday – from infancy to fifth-grade. The free event will be held at Bay Oaks and is free, however the foundation will begin registration at 8 a.m. Saturday to organize the age groups. The hunt will take place at 9 a.m.
Before the hunt begins, Bay Oaks and volunteers will have other activities and games set up for families to play. Entries into the foundation’s Easter coloring contest will also be on display.
Founder Fran Myers said she selected the Century 21 office this year to judge the entries submitted from both the Beach Elementary School as well as from Bay Oaks’ after school programs.
“We gave them a plain drawing and they have to color them in,” she said. “The prizes are all different!”
The fire department will be “hiding” the eggs in the fields and around the trees at Bay Oaks.
The hunt has been put on by the Beach Kids Foundation for more than 20 years, Myers said. The fire department has always been a partner in the event, but this year, Bay Oaks is getting involved too by hosting the hunt as well as adding other activities.
“Bay Oaks is the heart of the island,” said Director Sean De Palma. “Everything should be held here.”
When he started getting connected in the community after being hired last fall, he reached out to Myers and the rest of the foundation board to talk about a collaboration.
“The foundation was amazing and willing to work with us,” he said.
Bay Oaks staff even upped the technology of this year’s hunt with a “selfie station” where kids and families can go and get photos together. It’s a fun booth the staff plans to add into most of its events moving forward too, he said.
Volunteers will stuff 5,000 eggs Wednesday, April 12, beginning at 5:30 p.m.at the Red Coconut RV Park clubhouse. Myers asked that if anyone has time to drop off candy Wednesday before the stuffing party, she is short of candy this year. The foundation asks for non-chocolate candy because chocolate tends to melt inside the eggs.
Myers even bought special edible candy for the youngest hunters.
“It’s a tourist town, but we want to remind people that kids live here and want to have fun and enjoy the holiday too,” she said.
Rumor has it that even though it’s the day before Easter, the Easter bunny will make a special appearance during the hunt.
For other Easter-themed activities happening on Fort Myers Beach this week, check this week’s Beach Bulletin.