Hundreds show up for annual Easter Egg Roundup

By BRITTANY FHOLER 
Cove Leader-Press 

More than 300 kids came out and hunted for 15,000 eggs during the Copperas Cove Parks and Recreation Department’s annual Easter Egg Roundup held at the City Park Thursday evening. 
The children were divided into three different age groups (0-3), (4-6) and (7-10), with a fourth adaptive hunt set up for children with physical disabilities and sensory issues. A prize was given to someone from each age group for finding the special golden ticket. 
The event also featured free pictures with the Easter bunny and saw several vendors, including the Five Hills Scholarship Pageant Royalty signing up kids for Lemonade Day and Cadence Church handing out bottled water. 
The city’s Tourism and Information Coordinator Brianna McGuine said this event offers a good opportunity for residents to come out to see the city’s park and have a fun time with the Easter bunny.  
Though the bad weather last Saturday cancelled the event, the storms ended up breaking for a sunny but windy day of egg hunting. McGuine called it perfect timing. 
“They can still get it in before Easter and still have the weekend to celebrate,” McGuine said. 
The first age group of 0-3-year-olds started their hunt at 6 p.m., with parents assisting the kiddos as they gathered as many colorful, plastic eggs as they could. The next hunt, for kids ages 4-6-years-old, began at 6:15 p.m., with the hunt for kids ages 7-10-years-old beginning shortly after. With both hunts, the baseball fields were cleared of candy-filled eggs in less than five minutes. 
The adaptive egg hunt saw approximately 20 kids participate, including Lawrence Johnson, 5, who has autism. 
Johnson’s mother, Andrea Johnson, said this was the first Easter egg hunt that Lawrence was really able to participate in.
“What I like about it is that they have some for adaptive kids,” Johnson said. “When you have a child with autism, it’s difficult for him with big crowds, and so I really like this.”
Lawrence wasted no time in diving into his basket of eggs, opening each one and enjoying the candy. 
Johnson said that it’s hard to take Lawrence to some places, especially when people judge his behavior. 
 “It’s hard sometimes because you don’t see autism,” Johnson said.” just wish that some more people were understanding like the event now. It’s really, really awesome, and I’m pretty sure that all the other parents are really, really grateful too.”
Luna Hardy attended the event with her nephew, Alex, 9, her daughter, Mariella, 9, and Mariella’s friend, Angela 9. Mariella and Angela participated in the 7-10-year-old egg hunt while Alex participated in the adaptive egg hunt. 
Hardy said she thought the egg hunt was nice and appreciated it being a community wide event. She said she especially liked that they offered an adaptive hunt. 
“I always think that’s really awesome because he can only use one arm and can barely walk as good, so it’s always good to have a slower, calmer area for him to just pick them up,” Hardy said.