Sand Cay hosts annual Easter egg hunt

For Kiera Bourke, the strategy for the Easter egg hunt was simple: get candy. It worked out pretty well for her; she walked away with several eggs, a princess-themed Easter basket and plenty of candy.

“I like it because it’s fun to get candy,” Bourke, 6, said. “I picked the princess one with M&Ms, my favorite.”

The Sand Cay Easter egg hunt kicked off on April 15, Good Friday this year, like it has for decades. More than four dozen kids raced around the Sand Cay lawn searching for bright plastic eggs, hidden with varying degrees of difficulty based on age. There were about 500 eggs hidden around the property in total. Many of the egg hunters are second or third generation, said manager Lyn Sorensen, because a lot of their guests come year after year. Bourke was one of 11 youngsters in her family to do the egg hunt this year and joined up with her cousins after the hunt died down to trade candy and play with toys.

“We’ve been coming probably about 30 years,” Bourke’s grandmother Peggy Kotz said. “It’s like a second home to us. Our three daughters and 11 grandchildren always come at Easter.”

After the initial rush of egg hunters, Kotz and two of her grandchildren took a second lap around the main area looking for un-found eggs. No more turned up this year, but the Kotz family has found them in the past. (However, Sorensen and her team noticed one orange egg still half-hidden in the grass about an hour after the hunt.)

Several kids wound up with bags or baskets bulging with candy-filled treats, but in the end, it wasn’t quantity that mattered to get a go at the Easter baskets. Golden eggs were the thing this year, and 3-year-old Reef Keating found one of three of them. He got first pick at the bevy of baskets and walked away with several new toys for his vacation. 

After the lawn had been picked nearly clean and the baskets opened, kids headed for the inflatable water slides to work up their appetites. On the other side of the lawn, Sorensen and co. were setting up a Publix picnic for guests, which brought everyone together once more for the day.