ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Stormy weather held off long enough Saturday for more than 100 children to dash around Jordan Park in the Mayor's Egg Hunt.
Before the skies opened up about 12:45 p.m., children had a shot to collect more than 6,000 plastic eggs stuffed with candy. Kids who grabbed a golden egg had a chance to win special prizes such as season pool passes or gift cards to local businesses.
- More than 100 kids participated in the Mayor's Egg Hunt in Allentown Saturday
- While most Christians celebrated Easter last week, Sunday is Easter for many Orthodox churches
- Volunteers stuffed and distributed more than 6,000 eggs for the event
While most practicing Christians and Catholics celebrated Easter last Sunday, many Orthodox churches celebrate it this Sunday, Mayor Matt Tuerk said.
Given the high number of egg hunts held in other municipalities last week and the city's large Syrian community, it made sense to wait until today to host the event, he said.
"We do things a little differently in Allentown. We figured, let's do one that is accessible and inclusive. Let's lean into it."
Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk
"We do things a little differently in Allentown," Tuerk said, noting the city's trick-or-treating event isn't always on Oct. 31 and the St. Patrick's Day celebration usually misses March 17.
"We figured, let's do one that is accessible and inclusive. Let's lean into it."
Laser-focused kids, grateful parents
If any of the children cared about those semantics, it didn't show.
Joshua Garcia, 6, was laser-focused before the hunt as he fiddled with his jack-o-lantern pail. He planned to grab three eggs at a time, he said.
It may not have occurred to him that his hands were too small to put that strategy into action.
Maria Enriquez, his mother, had thought they had missed out on the Mayor's Egg Hunt. They were invited to an egg hunt birthday party last weekend and assumed they wouldn't be able to make both.
"It wasn't until this morning I figured it out it was today," Enriquez said as her daughter Elise Garcia, 4, shyly sat on her lap, gripping a white plastic basket.
Ryan Griffiths of the Allentown Parks Department and Sgt. John Leonard of the Allentown Police Department gave special thanks to the dozens of Police Athletic League mentors who made the event possible by filling the eggs with candy and spreading them across the park.
ebter