Belmont Savings’ Egg Hunt a Thunderous Success

Photo: Finding eggs with a smile at the 15th annual Egg Hunt in Belmont.

When the “crack” of an early Saturday morning thunderbolt woke her up, the first thought in Susan Condrick’s mind was “What about the hunt?”

The event she was referring to was the Belmont Savings Bank’s 15th Annual Belmont Egg Hunt taking place in just a few hours at the Chenery Middle School playing field, on Saturday, April 4.

“We [Carolyn Boyle, her business colleague at Hammond Real Estate and Egg Hunt co-director] had said rain, snow, mud or shine, but we hadn’t thought about lightning,” she said Saturday morning.

When they arrived at the playing field off Oakley Road, “[w]e were really relieved when we saw the little bit of blue sky,” she said.

And by the time a few hundred kids and their parents arrived at the site at the 10 a.m. start time, the rain had long past, the field was relatively dry and snow free and the sun was just preparing to peak out from behind the clouds.

With the help over the past two weeks of about 20 Chenery sixth graders and a fifth grade Girl Scout troop (#75023), 10,000 brightly-colored plastic eggs were filled with candy and prizes and sowing the field and the small playground for the toddlers.

And with a year’s experience in their pocket, Condrick and Boyle had their helpers in place, the eggs on the ground and hundred’s of kids eager to break the tape holding them back.

Condrick could only reach to “four” in her countdown before a wave of early-morning kids energy burst onto the landscape, searching for each egg in sight.

The kids, followed by parents and siblings, scoured the grounds, picking clean the land of every candy-laden egg in less than five minutes. And for the vast majority of kids, the day was a success.

“Last year, we were new at this and it didn’t run as smoothly as we would have liked. So this one ran smoothly,” she said.

For Condrick and Boyle, the yearly event is more than just a morning running after youngsters picking up colored eggs.

“This is a great introduction to Belmont for newer families in town with younger kids. And it is a nice time away from the fairly contentious political discussions that have been happening of late,” she said.

Along with the Belmont Savings Bank, which served as the lead sponsor, other backers include: