New Life Assembly to host third annual Easter celebration, egg hunt

The New Life Assembly of God of Trimble County is collaborating with the Family Flyer and Trimble County Fiscal Court to host its third annual Easter Celebration and Egg Hunt on Saturday, March 23.

The celebration will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Trimble County Park — its second year at the park.

“Our goal is to just make a community event that’s successful to everybody,” Joel Whitice, lead pastor for the New Life Assembly, said. “It’s really just about having something that our community can be a part of, take pride in; the kids, of course, have fun and as I always tell my congregation: ‘Load em up with candy and send them home.’ ”

Whitice said the event is free and open to the public and there will be many unique events for everyone to enjoy. In addition to the egg hunt — for children newborn to age 12 — there will be live music by local artist Craig Cole, food trucks, inflatables, face painting, pictures with the Easter Bunny, and more.

“The thing that I enjoy the most is watching those kids run as fast as they can to collect those eggs and it always just makes me chuckle to see them,” he said. “That’s really why we do it; we do it for the kids.”

Before becoming lead pastor, Whitice served in the children’s ministry for seven years, and enjoys seeing the children having a good time.

Whitice noted that there are other Easter events in other communities — like Carrollton, Madison and La Grange — but this event allows families to stay closer to home and celebrate with their neighbors and friends. “We just wanted to do something that was here where you didn’t have to go far if you didn’t live nearby or couldn’t go to these other places. We were already here for you,” he said.

Originally, the celebration began as a conversation between the church and the Welty Family from the Family Flyer. Whitice said the Family Flyer, started by Mitchell Welty, is a drivable radio wagon that accepts donations for toys for children around Christmas time.

“He’ll park the Flyer in front of Dollar Stores or go over to Madison and park over there and folks come and drop off toys inside the wagon,” Whitice said. Welty’s radio wagon has become very popular over time, gaining lots of recognition not just in Kentucky, but also in Tennessee.

Whitice said been friends with the Welty family since he and his own family moved to Trimble County from Florida. “They have been in Trimble County their entire lives. They have a lot of connections that we didn’t have … and they also share the same love for Trimble County and the community and the children that we do,” he said.

The two organizations have always worked together to host the Boo-nanza celebration on Halloween night and were wondering what other events they could do for kids in Trimble County.

“We said, ‘Well, what about Easter?’ All these other communities have Easter egg hunts and different things like that,’ ” Whitice noted.

For their first year in 2022, they hosted the celebration at the park, the second year they held it at the high school football field due to scheduling conflicts. The football field, according to Whitice, proved to much more restrictive than the park and they couldn’t have live music at the high school so the event as shifted back to the park.

According to Whitice, an event like the East Celebration does cost a lot of money, but several organizations and individuals have stepped up to help out.

Whitice expressed his gratitude to Trimble County Judge-Executive John Ogburn and members of Trimble Fiscal Court for helping bring the celebration back to the park and making sure they have enough space for music and food trucks. “They’ve been really supportive,” he said.