Harwich Community Center Provides Take-Home Easter Egg Hunt Kits

About Harwich Community Center Provides Take-Home Easter Egg Hunt Kits...The traditional Easter egg hunt at the community center will be a little different again this year, with the community center staff packaging take-home kits for families to hold their own hunt.

Community Center Director Carolyn Carey said people will have to pre-register at the center to get a count of the number of kids who will be participating in the family hunt. The take-home kits will come in various sizes depending upon the number of children participating.

The kit will come with about 20 plastic eggs per child, candy and other small prizes, bags with pencils and erasers and masks as well as one or two surprises.

"We don't want to tell them everything," Carey said.

Last year, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional egg hunt that took place along the back of the community center was canceled. Instead, about 300 bags of Easter eggs were assembled handed out at Monomoy High School when students came to pick up lunches after in-person sessions were canceled.

This year, staff decided it would be more fun for the kids to have there own Easter egg hunt, and thus the do-it-yourself take-home kit was created. The plan is to distribute them from the center between March 29 and April 2 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Easter is April 4 this year.

The pre-registration helps the staff more accurately calculate how many bags and the sizes that will be needed. The center plans on up to 300 bags. As of last Friday, Carey said 178 families had already registered. About half of the contents of the bags are funded through the community center gift account, she said, and the other half comes from people in the community making donations for the event.

"We actually give out more this way," Carey said of the take-home kit. "People feel safer, I think, and they can control their environment." She is asking people to call the center at 508-430-7568 to pre-register and schedule a time for your egg hunt kit pick up. The Easter Bunny will be hopping into the center for a couple of days while the egg-hunt kits are handed out, she added.

The community center staff is asking kids to also participate in their Springtime Coloring Pictures event that keeps the multi-generational connection flowing at the center. Kids can go online and print one of several coloring pages, or they can make their own design, color it and drop it off at the community center front desk or at the mailbox out front from March 29 through April 2 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Each piece of artwork will be put into lunches to brighten the day of seniors, Carey said. The lunches are distributed to elderly residents by council on aging volunteers.

"We try to keep that multi-generational connection at the community center, even through the pandemic," Carey said.