Sebastopol Easter Egg Hunt showcases spirited rite of springtime

The tension was palpable behind the yellow barricade tape at Ives Park for the 39th annual Kiwanis of Sebastopol Easter Egg Hunt.

It was 9:55 a.m. Saturday and the dozens of participants wiggled and squirmed and pressed against the plastic, scanning the grass beyond, looking for an advantage. They had five minutes to chart a course and a destination. Once the plastic comes down it’s a free-for-all. If you don’t pick right going in, the goodies will be gone.

Easter egg hunting may not be an Olympic sport, but there is obvious strategy. And the veterans above age 7 have their tricks. They know it can get highly competitive.

Axel Rodriguez, 9, was spending the last few minutes in deep concentration.

“I’m going to go for the higher ground over there. It looks like there are more over there,” the Parkside School student said. “Then I’m going to scavenge the fence and the trees.”

At one minute and counting, Kiwanis volunteers, who had arrived an hour earlier to hide the colored eggs - both real and chocolate - began handing out paper bags. But few kids, even babies, came unequipped.

“You can feel the energy shifting,” said Jennifer Prada. Her 9-year-old daughter, Capri, was crouched like a runner before a race, white shorts peeking out beneath her white party dress; a girl has to be prepared. She was also wearing brown Mary Janes, willing to sacrifice some athletic advantage for the right Easter look.

“She has to be dressed to the nines,” Prada said. “Her tennis shoes were not going to be fancy enough today.”

The mad scramble was over in less than?20 minutes. By that time only the most determined seekers were scouring the grass and trees and fencelines of the park for the rare undiscovered egg.

As one dad pushing a stroller observed when the dust had settled, “Man, it’s really aggressive out there.”

The smallest hunters were bewildered, coached through the hunt by parents and grandparents.

Brady Palk, 3½, was happy with the two chocolate eggs he got from what he called “The Easter Bing Bing,” a human in an adult rabbit costume who walked the park grounds dispensing candy, posing for pictures and provoking some anxiety.

Palk sported a T-shirt that boasted, “Rule Breaker, Mess Maker, Anti-Nap Taker.” But like many of the tiniest egg hunters, he was wary of the giant white rabbit.

“I tried to tell him on the drive here that he is just an adult in a costume. But he wasn’t buying that,” mom Kelley Palk said.

Kiwanis volunteer Patti Stack said members of the service club boiled and dyed ?45 dozen eggs, in addition to distributing scores of bags of Easter candy in three hunting areas set aside according to age.

She confessed that volunteers keep a watchful eye on each hunt, and are known to “seed the field” when they spot a child whose basket appears empty.

Most kids were hoping to score one of 50 plastic eggs bearing a gift certificate to Screamin’ Mimi’s ice cream, the Sebastopol equivalent of a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket.

Tiny Trudie Windsor, 2, landed only one egg in her basket, with a little coaxing from dad, Jason. The tot, in Shirley Temple curls and a pink dress, spotted a winner. She was one for one, landing a coveted ice cream certificate.

Lady Luck wasn’t with Capri Prada. She tried to horsetrade with another child who got a certificate, offering all the candy in her basket for that single coupon. The swap didn’t fly. But the fourth grader, who came with her best friend, was satisfied with the haul. Her strategy - “trying to find a place where there are lots of eggs but nobody else goes” - paid off in a full basket.

“It’s just fun coming on the day before Easter and getting eggs and getting to see a bunch of people I know,” she said, summing up the annual outing.

She and her bestie planned to pool their findings on the drive home - and divide them evenly.