Eggstravaganza at Forest Hill Park this Saturday
Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities will hold two free spring “Eggstravaganzas” for area children featuring egg hunts with a total of more than 30,000 candy-filled eggs.
The first will be held Saturday, March 20, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Pine Camp Arts and Community Center, located at 4901 Old Brood Rd., and the second will be held Saturday, March 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Forest Hill Park, located at 41st Street and Forest Hill Avenue.2
Both events will include games, music, food, arts and crafts, face painting, balloon artists, the opportunity to have a caricature portrait drawn and a photo taken with “Mr. Bunny,” as well as an abundance of other activities and prizes. The Richmond Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office will also be on hand to fingerprint children. Every child will leave with something to take home.
Children should bring their own basket and arrive early to register for the egg hunts which will be separated at each location into three hunts for different age groups. Each location will hold an egg hunt for children ages 4 and younger at noon, an egg hunt for children ages 5 to 7 at 12:30 p.m., and an egg hunt for children ages 8 to 12 at 1 p.m.
Joining the department are Radio One as co-sponsor of the Pine Camp Eggstravaganza and Clear Channel – 106.5 the Beat as co-sponsor the Forest Hill Eggstravaganza.
[...] 2. Eggstravaganza at Forest Hill Park [...]
[...] scheduled as follows: Ages 4 and younger at noon, ages 5-7 at 12:30, and ages 8-12 at 1pm. See Hills & Heights for more [...]
[...] Eggstravaganza at Forest Hill Park [...]
I have to say I am truly disappointed in this event my 3 yr old son and I attended this morning.
It was very disorganized and down right unsafe, asking 4 yr and younger children to walk into a huge fenced off area by a stranger and not letting parents in to attend to their screaming scared children??
When my son refused to go in with out me, and after asking the volunteer if I could walk him in and being told no, I turned away only to find a wall of pushing parents with their toddlers rushing to get in.
The volunteer told me several times to leave and one female volunteer even pushed me, I tried to make it though the crowd of parents only to be confronted by 2 angery woman that down right threatened me that if stepped towards them ” I was gonna have a problem”
When I made it out ( and Im really not exaggerating it was like how teenagers push forward in the front row a concert)
I went straight to the 1 st volunteer to let her know that some was going to get hurt in the rush, she didnt say a word and just shrugged her shoulders!!
Luckly the fire dept. was there, I spoke with several of the firemen and woman about my experience and they quickly sent someone over to control the crowd. Hopefully no one picked a fight or got hurt. Next year Forest Hil Park Eggstravanza please be more organized and utilize the firemen there that are happy and willing to help!
Also please no “booty” dancing contest on stage with 8 yrs old girls…it was find of gross!
I would have to agree with the previous post. It was very disorganized and not at all what we expected. I’m hoping that the organizers take some of the feedback from this year’s event to heart because it really is a great idea and a wonderful use of the park.
Im curious to know what happened when the children exited the area??
There must have confusion, kids not being able to find their parent, vise versa. Did the fire dept step in and create some order?
My other after thought ( and most of the people I have told this experiance to) was why were these parents so willing to let the children go off with strangers, it’s that something we are trying to teach the opposite of?
[...] Rec did their very best to ensure nobody wound up with an empty basket. Although there were some glitches in the proceedings, for the most part the egg hunts went smoothly. I wasn’t present for the [...]
They did have some misplaced children, but I’m not sure how much of it was related to the exit procedure. The kids weren’t really “going off with strangers” during the egg hunt, as the perimeter was wide open visually. I was able to keep an eye on my target children in the 5-7 group without too much trouble, although binoculars might have come in handy.
If I were running the event, I would probably allow one adult to accompany each child in the youngest group, simply because there’s such a range of ability in those kids.
We also were very disappointed in this event. Nowhere in any advertising of this event that I saw was it announced that it was a “dog free day” in the park. Thankfully we live close so it didn’t take too long to take our dog back home.
We then entered in time to watch young girls dancing really innappropriately on stage (the “stanky leg” dance apparently). Then there were just so many people we decided to leave. The eggs were just thrown out on the ground – what’s the challenge in that for the older kids? My 11 year old girl was afraid people would push her in the mad dash so we went home.
I applaud the city for trying to provide a free event like this but what a mess! We had our own Easter egg hunt in our yard and had a much better time.
What an utter disappointment. This should have been a family friendly event and failed miserably. Rude people, inappropriate music and performances, and the egghunts were downright unsafe. I don’t care if the area is “fenced,” no one should allow a child under 4 to be carted off by strangers and disappear into a chaotic throng of children. I doubt P&R will care what I think – if they did, they certainly would not have put on such an unfriendly, uninclusive, un-Easter event.
I usually do not post on these matters….but…. My wife and I took our girls..3 year olds, and were very let down as were our girls. No adults were allowed in the egg hunting area and the kids were sent off with strangers offering candy..inside of the eggs was a piece of hard candy , just the right size for a choking hazard. The mad rush to get in to the area was dangerous and the kids were supposed to exit the area on their own to waiting parents…How were the exiting children supposed to find the right parents ? who was making sure the right kids were taken by the right parents ? Just before we were to drop our children off, I overheard the pleas of a desperate mother to please let her in to find her missing 2 1/2 yr old. I also the reply of the volunteer at the gate who replied with a stern “no”. I could see the desperate look of a mother who couldn’t find their child and was receiving no help. As I turned around to share this with my wife, I witnessed one of our friends coming up behind trying to get her child out of there for the same reasons. Needless to say, we didn’t let our children in and we left the area. Hopefully, they will take all this into consideration for next year. it could be a good event and needs to be organized. Surprised the mayor would put his name on such an event without at least making sure it was safe!