Sweet Victory Hundreds Of Kids Scour City Park For Easter Egg Hunt

Carl Lewis wouldn’t have stood a chance.

He only runs for gold. These kid-sized bundles of kinetic energy were wired for an even sweeter victory.

The kind with cream filling.

Fast-twitch muscles were, well, twitching. Knees were bent forward. Anxious noses nodded forward, past the starting-line string. Feet stayed planted. Silence save for a shrieking sea gull.

Too much drama for some to bear.

“Say go!” begged 9-year-old Iris Homolka. Her mother frowned.

“I have no patience,” Iris half-apologized. “Sorry.”

It was Sunday’s Lions Club Easter Egg Hunt at Coeur d’Alene City Park. The annual holiday mayhem takes 200 pounds of pastel candy eggs, nearly a thousand kids and throws them together to create the happiest hullabaloo this side of a Disney movie.

But for now, it was silence. One last, long, second of it. Then the electric voice of the PA kicked in: “Is everyone ready?”

“!” shouted 900 kids.

“Lllet’s go!” crackled the PA.

The crowd surged, bonnets and baskets blazing. Still cameras clicked. Video cameras whirred. In minutes, the green turf was picked clean of the cellophane-wrapped goodies.

“Oh my,” breathed Iris’ mom, Mary. If only kids cleaned their rooms that way, she wished aloud.

Then Mark Mitchell became the most popular guy in town. Easy. That’s because Mitchell, standing on a park bench, was waving free ice cream bars.

“Thank you! Thank you!” piped a voice belonging to one of the many sets of stubby, outstretched fingers. “Yaayyy!”

Fifteen hundred bars were gone in fifteen minutes.

Barely a half-hour after it began, the park was emptying out. The big bunny was done posing for photos.

Other kids in other places, though, had egg hunts that were a little less stressful. At his home near Corbin Park in Spokane, Rick Meissner had over-seeded the field.

Family and friends scoured the back yard for plastic eggs loaded with money, whistles and bracelets.

“Only 42 were found,” Meissner said. “There are two more out there somewhere.”

His 7-year-old grandson, Chris Payseur, came out of the deal 10 eggs richer. “I made $4,” he beamed.

They celebrated the lawn looting with fresh ham, scalloped potatoes and a family favorite - Hershey Bar Dessert.

Across the street, Raylee and Rudy Cavasier hid eggs under leaves and limbs. Their four little brothers mowed through the yard in 20 minutes flat.

Then, to the business of sucrose. Chocolate-marshmallow treats. Speckled malt balls. Sugar-linked necklaces.

Dalton Cavasier, 5, had hunted and snared a dozen egg-encased treats.

“But I stepped on one and flattened it,” he lamented.

Well, OK. Maybe Carl Lewis wouldn’t have done that.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

MEMO: Cut in Spokane edition

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Ward Sanderson Staff writer Staff writer Jennifer Plunkett contributed to this report.