Strong gusts of wind on April 1 threatened the annual Hillsboro Easter egg hunt, but at the last minute organizers moved it indoors, to the horse arena at the Hillsboro R-3 School District’s Bridle Ridge Farm, said Mandy Alley, a board member for the Greater Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber sponsored the event, along with the school district and Leader Publications.
“We figured that rather than cancel, we’d go inside the arena. It wasn’t what we’d planned. We planned to have it outdoors, but moved it inside to be out of the winds.
“(The arena) is clean and the animals are kept clean. We had no problems. It was our first year for us moving it from Hillsboro Park to the farm and it was fun.”
About 350 people attended, said Alley, who chaired the event with chamber president Nicole Ghirardi.
“I think it was well-attended, considering the weather conditions,” Alley said.
The hunt was broken into age group categories: 2 and younger, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-10.
“I’d say each age group had 50 to 75 kids,” Alley said.
The Hillsboro Fire Protection District gave the Easter bunny a ride to the event.
“The kids were super excited to see the Easter bunny come by firetruck,” Alley said.
Photos with the Easter bunny were available before and after the egg hunts. No fee was charged, but donations were accepted to benefit the Hillsboro R-3 agricultural programs.
“Jessica Jacaty (the agriculture programs director) and the Hillsboro agriculture kids – it’s because of them we were able to have it, still,” Alley said. “They came in early and got to work cleaning up the arena so we could have the Easter egg hunt in there.”