Northwoods Adventure: Children And Dogs Go Hunting For Easter Eggs

Over 7,000 plastic Easter eggs carpeted Gregory Park on Saturday as hundreds of eager children were ready to partake in the annual Brainerd Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by the Brainerd Rotary club.

“Moving it to a centralized location in Gregory Park has helped draw in the community, and bring us together,” Katie Kaufman, Brainerd’s Recreation Coordinator, said.

The weather was a big difference from a year ago as last year children were hunting for eggs in the snow. This year with temperatures near 70, hundreds of children came out for the hunt, and there were some rules to help keep the kids organized. Quadrants were set up so children of similar ages would hunt together, and kids could only collect one color of egg.

“The reason why we have the children pick a certain color is because if we didn’t do that they would just bulldoze and scoop up like Hungry Hungry Hippo[s] all of these Easter eggs,” Kaufman said. “So that way, it’s actually more of a challenge and it gets them to run.”

“It was very well organized,” Aitkin resident Maggie Moss said. “It was nice to have different quadrants for the kids that are different ages, and the kids had a great time.”

Once the kids were done hunting for Easter eggs, it was time to head to Buster Park so the dogs could enjoy the holiday fun. Tennis balls were spread across Buster Park and dogs were able to do their own Easter egg hunting.

“If they find a tennis ball I can exchange it for a treat,” Kaufman said. “Hopefully we can give out one tennis ball per dog.”

Some dogs were more concerned with playing with other dogs than finding tennis balls, but it was something new for everyone.

Dog owner Nick Weeks said of his dog, “Eddy has a lot of energy, and he doesn’t get around other dogs too often so it was really cool to see him interact with other dogs.”

Brainerd Parks & Recreation is planning more dog themed events later this year as the dog community in Brainerd continues to grow.

“People are choosing to have dogs instead of children nowadays, so we want to try and provide programming for them,” Kaufman said. “Dogs are family nowadays, so we are trying to branch off of that.”

Whether you were a kid, a parent, or a dog, it is safe to say you had an egg-cellent time over Easter weekend.