6,000 eggs snatched up in minutes

It's all over in minutes.

Hundreds of warmly dressed eager egg hunters from infant to 11 years old turned out for the 38th annual Sisters Easter Egg Hunt at Creekside Park.

The Easter egg hunt is co-sponsored by the Sisters-Camp Sherman and Cloverdale fire department volunteer associations. Earlier Easter day volunteers hid 6,000 plastic eggs throughout the park on grass, pine needles, behind trees and bushes and then divided out areas for each age group.

"This year we have a couple of thousand more eggs and had over 20 volunteers helping to hide all of them," said Sisters-Camp Sherman firefighter Graham MacDonald, who organized the event.

The Easter Bunny arrived on the scene early with his basket of goodies, greeting enthusiastic kids before the traditional egg hunt began.

Sisters resident Spurge Cochran has tirelessly portrayed the Easter Bunny for 38 years.

At exactly 1 p.m. the siren blared and crowds of kids fanned out across the park scouring the grounds and filling their baskets with yellow, blue, orange, red and green plastic eggs filled with candy while some were marked for a special prize.

Loads of parents and spectators watched the free-for-all in awe, cheering them on with some parents steering their tiny tots in the right direction.

Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire Chief Roger Johnson was laughing at how fast the ambitious little hunters snatched up all the Easter eggs.

"It's great fun to watch how these kids can find 6,000 eggs in only five minutes. And yet it took lots of volunteer over two hours to hide them," Johnson said.

After filling her basket full of eggs, 5-year-old Josie Jaschke and her 7-year-old sister Sierra sat down to frantically open each of their plastic eggs.

"We have to look fast to see if we have a prize egg. Because then you can pick a really neat toy," Sierra Jaschke explained.

One family was shouting with joy and taking photos after they discovered that their 10-year-old daughter April, her 7-year-old sister Leah, and 5-year-old brother Evan all ended up with prize eggs.

You can't beat that.

The sun held out for the entire egg hunt, and there were plenty of happy faces and full Easter baskets to see as the egg-stravaganza came to an end.