LVFR Easter Egg Hunt to return to Hooper Park

Easter is just a little more than a week away, and Lincoln Volunteer Fire Rescue is bringing back their traditional Easter Egg Hunt at Hooper Park.

Kids up to sixth grade are welcome to come to the park Easter Sunday,

April 4 at 1 p.m. to gather up hundreds of the candy-filled eggs scattered around by the firefighters.

"We want to start getting things back to normal for folks, especially the kids," Lincoln fire Chief Zach Muse told the BVD.

The Hooper Park Easter egg hunt has been a tradition in Lincoln since 1968, when the Madd Hatters hosted it for the first time with sponsorships and support from a large number of businesses and organizations in the Lincoln Valley.

When. Lewis and Clark County implemented restrictions on gatherings and social distancing requirements on March 16 of last year, as part of the early effort to "flatten the curve" of COVID-19, it forced the firefighters to scrap the hunt at Hooper Park.

Instead, the Fire Department and Lincoln Volunteer Ambulance celebrated the day by with a convoy of emergency vehicles that took the Easter Bunny on a tour of the valley. They also worked with the Powerhouse Gym and local volunteers, to provide pre-filled Easter eggs to families who then could host their own private egg hunts at home, Volunteers also put in an extra effort to fill and hide several hundred eggs throughout Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild to give families a chance to go to the park for a more challenging Easter egg hunt.

The return to the traditional Easter egg hunt came about after Lewis and Clark County lifted restrictions on the size of gatherings March 12. Currently the county still has a mask mandate in effect, including at outdoor events where social distancing may not be able to be observed.