The Easter bunny will drop eggs from a helicopter at the first-ever Jeffco Shop with a Cop Easter Egg Hunt to be held Saturday (April 6) at West City Park, 2232-2292 Old Hwy. A, in Festus.
Any children ages 2 to 12 are invited. Admission is free. However, some activities that require a fee for participation will be included.
“We’re partnering with Survival Flight (helicopter emergency medical services),” said Festus Police Cpl. Lewis Pippin, a spokesman for the countywide Shop with a Cop organization. “They’ll fly in the Easter Bunny and the Easter Bunny will drop the eggs.
“The egg drop will be at 11 a.m., but we recommend people get there as early as 10 a.m.”
Different hunts will be held for various age groups, Pippin said.
“We’ll have eggs in the field already (in addition to the drop),” he said. “We’re going to try to do our best to accommodate parents with kids in different age groups. We’ll start with the youngest and go from there.
“We’ll have candy inside the eggs. There also will be special eggs with vouchers for Shop with a Cop T-shirts.”
He said Easter egg hunts tend to finish quickly.
“We expect it to be done in an hour,” he said.
The event will include a variety of other activities.
“There will be activities there you can pay for – a 50/50, other raffles, face painting, a dunking booth,” Pippin said. “We’ll have a dunking booth where the cop gets dunked. It will be manned by one person, a cop.”
All proceeds will go to the Jeffco Shop with a Cop program, which raises money to take children in need on a Christmas shopping trip. Nearly 300 children got to shop with an emergency responder last Christmas season.
The Jeffco Shop with a Cop organization is made up of about 30 fire, police and ambulance agencies.
At the egg hunt, attendees will be able to view firetrucks, police vehicles and ambulances.
For more information about the event of the Shop with a Cop program, contact Pippin at the Festus Police Department at 636-937-3646 or visit Jeffco Shop with a Cop on Facebook.