Glowing egg hunt hits 10-year mark
This is a tradition that is quite unlike any other.
The event was originally coined by Taylor Sparkman, whose sister, Anna Wood, now volunteers as the church’s Youth and Children’s director.
“Originally, I was 12 when it started,” Wood said of the hunt, “and my sister was the one who put it together. It just kept going through the years. And it’s turned into a whole event.
“I put it together because I was sad we were getting old,” Sparkman added with a chuckle.
The event has grown from a typical hunt with glow-in-the-dark eggs to an Easter version of Capture the Flag with each team looking to capture the other team’s eggs.
Attendees are divided into pink and yellow teams before dark. After each team hides its eggs, players return to the field behind the church to search for each one.
Some were hidden in drainpipes while others were buried beneath pinecones.
But at the end, all the eggs from the winning team are held in a small gold trophy that is kept in the youth room until the next year’s hunt.
Along with the hunt itself, kids play games that involve eating donuts off strings — without using one’s hands — and tossing cheese balls onto other kids’ heads, which are covered in shower caps with shaving cream on top so the cheese balls would stick.
Altogether, the event is a bit more complex than the church’s original egg hunt, which has been in place almost as long as the 53 years Leonard Turner has served as pastor.
Now, his grandchildren — Sparkman and Wood — are finding a new way to approach a familiar, family-friendly event.
“I think it’s really fun to have a chance to remember your childhood as everyone does,” Sparkman said. “Playing outside, staying out late until dark. It’s silly and fun, and we don’t get to do that a lot in today’s world.”
