Hundreds of young Red Deerians spent part of their long weekend searching for Easter eggs around Sunnybrook Farm Museum.
On Saturday, April 19 ,an annual Easter Egg Hunt was held at the museum, which aims to celebrate the early days of Alberta farming.
"A few years ago we decided we wanted to do more activities around the wintertime, when the general exhibits are closed," explained Ian Warwick, executive director of Sunnybrook Farm Museum.
"This was a volunteer-driven initiative. Our volunteers really wanted to do more activities year-round. We're busiest from May through August, with the baby animals and other activities going on here."
First, the museum introduced a Family Day event with sleigh rides. Then the Easter egg hunt was introduced.
"It's an opportunity to give back to the community and give the kids something fun to do. We've go a beautiful day for it today — a couple years ago we did this on a day that was snowy, muddy and wet, and even then we saw hundreds of kids come here," said Warwick.
Warwick, who welcomed families participating in the Easter egg hunt onto the museum property while wearing a chicken costume, noted there were already about 200 children at Sunnybrook shortly after the event began, adding they had enough candy for as many as 400.
"The museum is doing really well. We're so pleased with the support we've got from the community," said Warwick.
"We're always looking for new volunteers. If someone's recently retired and they grew up on a farm, they'd be a perfect fit for us. Over the last couple we've had volunteers making pies for our summer events. ... We basically start our summer on May 4, which is when the baby animals arrive. Summer staff start on May 1 and get their training. Then the buildings open up that weekend and we'll be open seven days a week until the end of August."
For more information on Sunnybrook Farm Museum, visit www.sunnybrookfarmmuseum.ca.
