A calmer, cooler Easter Egg Hunt
Chocolate and kids fill Niagara Falls park for annual holiday event
After some Easter drama last year, it was a cold but successful Easter egg hunt at Firemen’s Park in Niagara Falls on Friday.
The annual event made a few changes after some parents aired their complaints on social media last year about crowd control and children’s safety.
In response, this year’s event changed the layout, having children exit directly where parents were waiting. There was also a separate area set up for parents to accompany young children three and under.
It made for a less stressful egg hunt on Friday, with little to no confusion for kids as they quickly located their parents after scooping chocolate eggs off the ground.
“We take the comments and rather than look at them negatively, we look at it as, hey, we’re going to try and make it better for you guys,” said Kevin Fehr, president of the Stamford Centre Volunteer Firemen’s Association (SCVFA), which runs the event.
“If you do find that we’re not doing something right, come and help us. Be a volunteer.”
Last year’s event packed Firemen’s Park with about 4,000 people — the most Fehr can remember.
And while the huge crowd ended up raising more than $6,000 in donations for Project Share ($1,000 more than in 2022), it created parking chaos. Cars lined the streets for several blocks leading to Firemen’s Park.
This year, a shuttle service was arranged with Niagara limo company Coventry Transportation. Throughout the day a bus transported people to the park from Club Italia, about a kilometre away.
This year’s event also appeared to have more visible volunteers directing parents to where they had to be.
“These guys — theSCVFA — they’re out here all winter long looking after this park,” said Fehr. “They’re out here in the heat, the sun, the rain. These guys are dedicated. They love this park.”
The event distributed about $3,000 worth of chocolate eggs to several hundred kids throughout the day. Those who didn’t do the hunt could get them directly from the source — the Easter Bunny.
It made a fan of recent Niagara Falls resident Liz Santos, attending the hunt for the first time with her two daughters.
“I absolutely loved it,” she said. “Everyone was treated very well. I’d give it five stars out of five.”