March 30 is a big day for Easter egg hunting in Carroll

Saturday, March 30 will go down as a big day for Easter egg hunting in Carroll County with two big hunts planned at different times just a short distance apart.

General Butler State Resort Park will host its annual Easter Egg Hunt at the Story Walk Trail near the park entrance beginning at 10 a.m. and Carrollton’s Main Street Program will host its annual “Easter on the Square” event from 1-4 p.m. on the Carroll County Courthouse Square. Both events are free and open to the public with prizes awarded.

The Butler Park egg hunt begins at 10 a.m., and will include hunts for two different age groups. Hunter Schmidt, the park’s progress service supervisor, said ages groups include: ages 5-12 from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and ages 13 and up from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. One of the prizes featured in the hunts is a golden egg that will be hidden somewhere in the park. Clues are being posted on the park’s Facebook page and additional clues will be forthcoming.

Sam Burgess, program manager of the Main Street Program, said that egg hunt will begin at 3 p.m. with a hunt for age 4 and under and another for age 5 to 10. There will also be prizes for each age group, such as Easter baskets and chocolate bunnies.

Schmidt said the park hunt will feature 2,000 “eggs” with toys, candy, or other types of prizes inside.

There will also be various types of Easter-themed crafts offered at a nominal cost to participate and a photo op at the conference center that is free of charge.

“We want to make sure that every kid is going to be able to walk in and enjoy and basically be able to find their eggs,” he added.

Burgess said the Main Street hunt doesn’t so much hide the eggs as scatter them around the courthouse lawn so that children and quickly gather them up and move on to other fun events.

Those events include other outdoor games, inflatables, face painting, Easter egg decorating, a golden egg drawing to win $50 in Downtown Dollars, and more. There will also be a jelly bean counting contest for adults and children under 12 with prizes for each age group. The adults will be able to win Downtown Dollars, while the children will be able to win an Easter bag filled with treats.

“We want to make sure that Carrollton has a lot of different stuff to offer,” Schmidt said. “And we start packing all these things into one time; we want to make sure we’re not overlapping. We want to give people in the area, even outside of the area, time to experience everything Carrollton has to offer in its entirety, as well as Butler.”

Burgess said the Main Street event is now in about it’s 20th year, and while everything is ready for the big day, he still needs one thing to make the event be the most that it can be: Good weather.

“There have been years where it’s been nasty outside and we’ve had to move it indoors,” Burgess said. “It’s kind of hard to do an Easter Egg Hunt in the library. It’s definitely an outdoor event.

Meanwhile, the park’s annual Easter Buffet is also scheduled for Sunday and reservation are required since sessions routinely book up early. To schedule a reservation call 502-732-4384.

“We are hoping to fill every single seating up,” Food Service Operations Manager Christina Schadler said.