Nordale Easter egg hunt a hit

Aria was one of several Prince Albert kids having a blast at the Nordale Easter Egg hunt. She's pictured here picking up an egg she found partially buried in the snowbank to her left. (Peter Lozinski/Daily Herald)

Saturday afternoon was a little overwhelming for Stacee Ruszkowski. Over the past year she has been planning an Easter egg hunt in Prince Albert. She didn’t know how many people would show up.

As it turns out, hundreds of eager kids and their parents converged on Nordale Community Hall Saturday, paying $10 each for an egg hunt, colouring contest, games, treats and other goodies at the first annual Nordale Easter Egg Hunt.

Ruszkowski credits her boyfriends with helping inspire the idea to put on an event in Prince Albert.

“We’ve been going to Weirdale for the last three years. That’s about a 45-minute drive,” she said.

“My boyfriend gave me the idea and I went through with it. I like doing this kind of planning.”

The preparations took about a year, but really ramped up over the last two months, when Ruszkowski worked almost every day on the project.

“It took a lot of planning.”

In all, 1,234 plastic eggs were set out between the hall and the baseball diamonds in Nordale. A narrow path was shovelled out, and eggs both sat on top of, and were buried in the walls of, the snow.

Each kid was allowed to collect eight eggs. Each of the eggs had a number inside. Those numbers corresponded to small prizes they could redeem inside the hall before they had the opportunity to enter the colouring contest, the jelly bean guess or to snack on some cookies.

A family looks for eggs at the first annual Nordale Easter egg hunt

The occasional lucky egg had a golden ticket inside. That corresponded to a larger prize.

While Ruszkowski was the driving force behind the event, she had a lot of help, and she needed it.

“Most of my family members were big supporters of it,” she said.

“I’m overwhelmed with this turnout. It’s really good.”

The inaugural event also helps Ruszkowski plan for next year, giving her something to build on.

“Maybe a bigger area would be what I’d look into,” she said.

“This just gives me an idea of how many people turnout out. Next year I can go off of that.”

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