It’s not all about eggs

Nine-year-old Will Kennedy’s third and final Easter egg hunt Saturday turned out to be his most successful.

Kennedy was one of the 14 children who won a bike at the Coeur d’Alene First Assembly of God Candy Hunt at Borah Elementary school.

He smiled ear to ear as he pushed his new bike back to his corner of the church.

His mother had gone home earlier with her 5-week-old baby, but he stuck it out with a family friend and her children.

“I can’t believe you won a bike,” said Trish D’Andrea, who had taken Kennedy to all three egg and candy hunts. The blue and red Huffy with padded handlebars was one of the many gifts donated by the church congregation and business community. Bikes and dozens of stuffed animals were also handed out to people who stuck around for the free drawing inside the church.

The event was first held six years ago and drew about 450 people, said Shane Hensley, organizer of the event and children’s director for the church. Last year, about 1,200 children and their parents came to the event. Gray skies kept the number down to about 1,000 this year. The event costs the mid-size church about $3,000 a year, but hundreds of people come for the candy, and the drawing of prizes.

“The giveaway is incredible,” said John Fischer, who came with his wife and daughter. “My neighbor won a bike two years in a row.”

After the prize giveaway, volunteers serve a free lunch, including hot dogs. The religious element is kept low-key, Hensley said.

“We want it to be more relationship based,” Hensley said.

Word of the community egg hunt was starting to draw in people from farther away, Hensley said.

Kennedy came in from Hayden. D’Andrea was visiting from Eagle, Idaho. A number of people had called from Spokane to ask about the event, Henley said.

The candy hunt is spread out on the school’s grassy field.

Parents in hats with kids on their shoulders lined up for the free cotton candy and giant inflatable slide. But as it got close to 11 a.m., parents and children lined themselves up in one of four marked areas.

With five minutes to go before the hordes of children were let loose to gather candy, Rick Ruggles hauled a large plastic tub into the area for children age 4 to 6. There were four roped off areas for children of different ages. The crowd of parents and children began murmuring as Ruggles tossed out handfuls of candy until the grass was covered.

Shelly Mitchell gave her 6-year-old son, Cody Ray Mitchell, last-minute instructions. Her son’s a strong child. She calls him Moose.

“If the other kids are pushing, just stay away from them,” Mitchell told her son.

Her son arrived with a very large basket with a 3-foot-high handle that he won at an egg hunt the night before at Dave Smith’s Frontier Leasing and Sales used car dealership event.

“He’s thrilled with the size of the basket. It’s as big as him,” Mitchell said.

He stood behind the yellow tape with 200 of his peers. Then came the sound they wanted to hear: An organizer began yelling, “Go, go, go!”

Mitchell’s basket handle became ensnared around another child at first, and then he disappeared into a percolating mass of limbs and bodies to snatch up the last bits of candy.

Mitchell moved around the perimeter to try to reconnect with her son. And then he appeared with a nearly full basket that he held up higher so his mom could see.