WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Despite chilly temperatures and a cool breeze on Saturday morning, signs of spring abounded at Lyman Point Park.
Birds chirped as Hartford children rushed to fill baskets with pastel-colored plastic eggs. Families were scheduled to arrive at 10-minute intervals throughout the morning to retrieve the eggs that employees of the Hartford Parks & Recreation Department had strewn across the snow-free ground at the White River Junction park next to the town hall.
“Right this way, friends,” said Tatum Barnes, a recreation department intern. “Right this way. We have a great field for you right over here.”
To allow for social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Barnes directed families to different parts of the park that department employees had separated with stakes and caution tape. Masks also were required, and people were directed to enter and exit the egg-gathering areas via separate paths.
In non-pandemic times, the town’s annual Spring Egg Scramble has been more of a frenzy, with large groups of kids descending on a big, egg-covered field all at once. It might include as many as 350 children from Hartford and neighboring towns, said Jay McDonough, superintendent of recreational programs.
“There are so many kids,” he said.
This year’s event, which required that participants be Hartford residents and sign up in advance, was expected to include about 115 children, he said. The town also offered families the option of a DIY egg hunt by inviting them to pick up bags of plastic eggs from the department, and employees set up an egg scavenger hunt at the town’s parks. Large laminated, colored eggs with trivia questions on the back are scattered around the parks. Participants can put their answers on a worksheet available online and then return it with a photo to the department to be in the running for a prize. The scavenger hunt runs through Tuesday.
Children also are invited to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar to win the jar, the beans and a gift certificate, McDonough said. The jar was on display at Saturday’s event and will be in a window at the rec department until Monday, when a winner will be announced.
The Spring Egg Scramble is one of many activities that the department has operated with modifications over the past year, McDonough said. The department did run its summer camp last year and plans to again this year, with safety protocols in place. It also operates an after-school program, as well as youth sports and clubs. At Halloween, the department organized a drive-thru trunk-or-treat and, similarly, at Christmas, held a drive-thru Santa event. Through an event called “Light Up Hartford,” the town created a map of houses decked out for Christmas, he said.
With a “little set-up,” Saturday’s scramble was a good way to “get kids out,” McDonough said. His kids, age 7 and 4, were among those in attendance.
The Nugent family, of West Hartford, came to this year’s Spring Egg Scramble after spending last year’s Easter holiday at home due to the COVID-19 stay-at-home order in place at the time.
“What are we even going to do with these eggs?” Lindsay Nugent asked as 4½-year-old Wyatt quickly filled his basket, which his 1½-year-old sister Peyton promptly emptied onto the ground.
Wyatt and Peyton were at home with Nugent for 3½ months at the beginning of the pandemic, but have since returned to day care and Wyatt is preparing for kindergarten in the fall, Nugent said.
Similarly, the Olmsted family filled up their Easter baskets on Saturday after not doing “anything” for the holiday last year, said mom Britt Olmsted.
At 18 months old, Ozzy Olmsted was celebrating Easter for the first time and seemed happy to pile eggs into baskets belonging to his older siblings, 8-year-old Stellan and 5-year-old Clementine.
In addition to weathering the pandemic this past year, the Olmsted family also returned to the Upper Valley from Florida last June so that Britt Olmsted, who had done her medical training in the Upper Valley, could take a job as an oncologist at the White River Junction VA. The family, who live in White River Junction, are “happy to be back” in the Upper Valley, Olmsted said.
After a year of many changes, it “seems like things are settling down now,” she said.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
