Easter Sunday was a cloudy but festive day in Memorial
Park for about 100 kids from local orphanages. An Easter egg
hunt started at 10 a.m. when a fire engine blasted its horn.
Boys and girls, ranging in age from 2 to 6, dashed throughout
the park, yelling and screaming, walking and running, and
quite often, falling down. One little girl, Amanda, found her
first egg less than a minute after the horn blew. Instead of
putting it into her basket and continuing to search for more,
she sat down. Then she spent the next 10 minutes examining
it, unwrapping it, and eating it piece by piece. When she
finished, she put the wrapper into her basket, wiped her hands
on her white dress, and went to hunt for another egg.
Meanwhile Jeff, one of the older boys, filled his basket to
overflowing. He asked one of the firemen to hold it for him,
and then took off running for more candy eggs. As soon as he
found some, he put them into the basket of the child closest to
him. Two little toddlers both saw a candy egg at the same
time, and they both bent over to pick it up. They banged
heads, and both of them sat down bawling. A couple of
volunteer nurses picked them up and told them that everything
was going to be all right.
By 11 a.m., the search was over. Most of the kids were
studying their candy, exchanging it with others, or eating it.
But then the fire engine horn blasted again, causing threeyear-
old Jenny to cry. A fireman on a bullhorn told everyone
to gather around, because a special guest had arrived.
Once everyone was settled, the Easter Bunny climbed
down out of the fire engine. The bunny was 6’6” tall. Most of
the kids cheered and ran toward him. Even Jenny stopped
crying for a moment. She stared at the bunny and at all the
kids running toward the bunny; then she started crying even
harder. The Easter Bunny hugged the kids, and they hugged
him. Then the Easter Bunny sat on a fire engine step, and one
by one the kids came up, sat on his lap, and got their pictures
taken. After that, the older kids were allowed to explore the
fire engine itself.
The festivities ended about 3 p.m., when the orphans
climbed into the buses for the return trip home. Most of them
said they had a fun time. Six-year-old Sara asked, “Can we do
this every Sunday?” And more than one boy asked, “Can I
drive the fire engine next time?”