Photo: Out of the way!

A field covered with several hundred candy-filled plastic eggs. A few hundred children anticipating the hunt. You know the rest.

On the day before Easter, kids and parents descended on the Chenery Middle School playground for the 16th annual Belmont Egg Hunt, sponsored by the Belmont Savings Bank. 

At 10 a.m., like a scene out of a junior version of “The Hunger Games,” the hoard of kid humanity enveloped the playground with one aim in mind: get eggs. For some, it was a chance to romp and scream as they collected the plastic shells; others had an all-business look in their eyes.

Within five minutes, the children had stripped bare the land of all but a few broken plastic containers. The 10 egg limit was not strictly followed by the tributes as the end result was to get as much as they could throw into their bags.

Over at the toddler section – at the playground equipment – the “action” was a bit less competative with some of the participants picking up an egg, putting it back down and then happily going off to find another. 

The yearly hunt is geared towards being a family friendly event, said Susan Condrick of Gibson Sothebys International Realty, who along with her good friend, Carolyn Boyle of Hammond Real Estate, has been organizing the activity for the past few years.

Condrick praised Belmont Savings for “coming through each year” as the lead sponsor and for providing 200 “gold coins” that were included in the eggs. Pediatric Dental Arts of Watertown and the Toy Shop of Belmont provided gift certificates for bikes that were given to a child and toddler.

“This is really a community event for us, getting the volunteers together and coordinating the entire event. With middle and high school students helping, it takes 80 man-hours to put all the eggs together,” said Condrick.

“It’s a really fun event. Most kids are just excited to get two pieces of candy instead of one in an egg,” she said.