Kids don’t travel far to find eggs at Okanagan’s largest Easter hunt

Brooklyn Stang, 2, arrived ready-to-go in her Easter egg hunting outfit. “She’s cute, isn’t she?” asked mom Sara Stang.

“She definitely went with the Easter-spring theme.”

As such, Brooklyn rocked pink rubber boots, flowered pants, pink-patterned jacket, pink-andwhite Easter hat and carried a coral-coloured basket.

Looking the part, she took to the lawn at the Parkinson Recreation Centre on Friday to gather goodies at Victory Life Fellowship Church’s 15th annual Easter Egg Hunt and Pancake Breakfast.

The event is the Okanagan’s largest hunt with 3,000 people attending over three hours and 1,500 kids under 12 scooping up 15,000 candy-filled eggs.

Again this year, Victory Life had a recycling mantra, urging kids to empty the candy out of the plastic eggs so the containers can be reused next year.

Janelle McKee, 3, also appeared hunt-ready.

She wore a pink bunny hat and pink jacket and was accompanied by dad Sean as she collected eggs. Emily Ortman, 18 months, did not know what to make of the whole scene.

She didn’t understand the hunt concept, but was interested in checking out the eggs.

When it came time to have her picture taken, she was also unsure and presented more of a blank stare than a smile.

Meanwhile, some of the older kids definitely knew how to ham it up.

When someone appeared in a white Easter bunny costume, Kate Slatta, 8, and her sister Paige, 11, along with Jayden Solloway, 9 and Ashton Dekker, 10, posed with the giant upright lagomorph and mugged for the camera.

Speaking of bunnies, volunteers Amita McFarlane of CircusYoga Kelowna, and her exchange students, Haruka Sato from Japan and Anny Weber from Germany, donned the appropriate ears to replenish eggs after each round of hunting.

“We do this every year and everything is completely free because we love building community,” said Victory Life Pastor Diana Tripke.

“We don’t necessarily get people coming to our church because of this event, but it is a chance for us to wear our ‘God is good, good, good’ T-shirts and practically show the love of Christ, especially at Easter.”

STEVE MACNAULL/The Okanagan Weekend Volunteers Haruka Sato, left, Amita McFarlane and Anny Weber donned bunny ears to help at the 15th annual Victory Life Fellowship Church Easter Egg Hunt & Pancake Breakfast on Friday at Kelowna’s Parkinson Recreation Centre.

STEVE MACNAULL/The Okanagan Weekend LEFT: Brooklyn Stang, 2, was one of 1,500 kids who collected Easter eggs at the 15th annual Victory Life Fellowship Church Easter Egg Hunt & Pancake Breakfast Friday at Kelowna’s Parkinson Recreation Centre. RIGHT: Sean McKee and his daughter Janelle, 3.