Darleene Barrientos
Trying to steadily walk a length of grass while holding a plastic egg
with a wooden spoon Saturday, 7-year-old Charlie Kupershmidt declared
the egg walk the hardest game at the city's Easter Eggstravaganza.
Charlie also liked the basketball and bowling games and the ring
toss, but he looked disappointed when he thought about the Easter egg
hunt. He did not do as well as he had hoped, his mother Leanne
Kupershmidt said.
"But at least I got rings," Charlie said. "I got lots of rings."
Just about 300 people attended this year's event, down from an
attendance between 400 and 500 last year, Community Services Director
Walter Alvarez said. The event was postponed to Saturday because of
impending rain the previous weekend.
But even though the sun shone through the trees and the grass was
dry, the later date dampened attendance and the number of volunteers
who showed up, he said.
"But I think it was a good turnout," Alvarez said. "It's a
comfortable turnout."
Those who did attend sampled games such as Ring a Rabbit, Got
Hops?, and Crack an Egg Walk. Children and parents got to decorate
antenna balls with eyes, bunny ears and paint, and children took
pictures with the Easter Bunny. A table was also available for
children to put their Polaroid pictures in a card sheath and decorate
it as an Easter card.
Samuel Whaley, 3, clutched a free bag of popcorn and wandered
toward the Easter Bunny, who was posing for pictures with children.
His grandmother, Pam Schiller, stopped him from walking into the
picture.
"He's scared of that big bunny," Schiller said to her grandson.
"I'm not," Samuel declared.
Saturday's city event was not the first for Schiller, her daughter
or her grandchildren.
"We go to all the city of Glendale events because they're so well
organized and so fun," Schiller said.
"Without them, Samuel would be afraid of Santa Claus and the
Easter Bunny," said Megan Whaley, Samuel's mother and Schiller's
daughter.
The main event -- the Easter egg hunt -- attracted children like
runners to a race.
Jonathan Ramos, 8, was poised with one foot ready to propel him
into the area where the colorful, plastic Easter eggs were "hidden."
Ultimately, he found eight eggs that contained stickers and erasers.
For finding eggs with designated objects, Amanda Perez, 8, won a
basket of stuffed rabbits and candy, while 8-year-old Jenna El-Fakih
was awarded a bunny-shaped chocolate.
