Twin City Little League’s first crack at holding an egg hunt was a success, said Terence Wilkes, the baseball and softball organization’s vice president.
Wilkes, who also is one of the group’s fundraising coordinators, said 575 children between the ages of 3 and 16 participated in one of the two hunts held April 3 at the Twin City Little League fields in Crystal City.
“It went fantastic,” Wilkes said. “We were surprised with the response since this was the first year we did it. It was pretty overwhelming for all of us. It was great to see the smiles on the kids’ faces and being thanked for putting on the event. It was an uplifting moment for the board members to have something like this for the community.”
Wilkes said 195 children between the ages of 3 and 6 and 130 children between the ages of 7 and 9 participated in an afternoon egg hunt, and 150 children between the ages of 10 and 12 and 100 children between the ages of 13 and 16 participated in the night hunt that had participants using flashlights to hunt for eggs.
The afternoon hunt was free, and participants paid $5 for the night hunt.
Wilkes said Twin City Little League collected about $1,800 throughout the day from entrance fees and concession sales. He said the group will use the money to make improvements at its fields, which are located on 1 Little League Drive.
He also said the Twin City Little League wanted to thank the event’s title sponsor, Laura Lohman of Main Key Realty in Festus, for helping organize the hunts.
“She was a big help in putting it together,” Wilkes said. “We also want to thank all of the other sponsors of the event.”
Wilkes said the group plans to hold egg hunts every year.
“We hope to continue to have the egg hunts at the facility so people can see the improvements we have made and get more kids interested in playing baseball and softball,” Wilkes said.