Thousands of Easter egg-seeking youngsters scampered Saturday through Spring Lake Park's wooded acreage collecting the multi-colored holiday delights during the third annual Community Easter Egg Hunt.
This year's egg hunt appeared to be every bit as successful as the previous two egg hunts, with as many as 5,000 children and their parents scouring the park for some 40,000 eggs.
The event, which has so far been blessed with good spring weather every year, started with five Texarkana area churches-Beech Street First Baptist Church, Church on the Rock, Highland Park Baptist Church and Heritage Baptist church-all getting together to plan a community event. They jointly decided on a community Easter Egg Hunt the weekend before the holiday, said Michelle Lawrence, children's director at Beech Street First Baptist Church.
"Before the egg hunt, children get to hear the true story of Jesus Christ's resurrection," Lawrence said. "Once the kids finish the egg hunt, they can trade their egg collection in for candy."
Since that spring of 2017, this happy gathering has consisted of fun-filled face painting, snow-cone eating, egg tossing, bean bag tossing, rabbit ring tossing, bunny bowling and balloon blasting.
Brad Gibson brought his 18-month old son, Wade, to the egg hunt for the first time.
"It's just great to see all these churches come together to make this happen," Gibson said. "I think we'll keep coming out to these things for now on."
Gibson's mom and Wade's grandma, Sharon Gibson agreed.
"I just think it's so great to be out here to celebrate such a great gift to the world-that is the fact that Christ has risen," she said.