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Easter activities enliven Wick Park
By SEAN BARRON
YOUNGSTOWN
Wick Park Easter egg hunt
Gallery
Hundreds of area youngsters hunted for Easter eggs Saturday April, 3, 2010 at Wick Park in Youngstown, OH.
The last several days of unseasonably warm weather has brought an array of colors to Wick Park, but grass that was dotted with orange, purple and blue?
Well, the hundreds of Easter eggs spread throughout much of the North Side park had a lot to do with that.
It didn’t take long, though, before 2-year-old Michaela Moran of Youngstown did her part to make them more scarce.
Michaela was one of an estimated 150 children age 1 to 10 who participated in Saturday’s first Wick Park Neighborhood Association’s Easter egg hunt. Sponsors were city Councilman Jamael Tito Brown, D-3rd, and Councilwoman Annie Gillam, D-2nd.
Michaela, who bagged 27 eggs, came with her grandmother, Hope Moran of West Middlesex, Pa., whose ties to Youngstown remain strong.
“I came because I love Youngstown,” said Moran, a massage therapist. “I like to support anything going on in Youngstown.”
She has many clients in the area, she noted, and attends the nearby Unitarian Universalist Church, on Elm Street.
Her plans for Easter include having a small egg hunt at her home and visiting a sister on the city’s West Side, Hope said.
Four-year-old Nicholas Foster didn’t do too badly, either. His blue bucket was filled with 14 eggs as well as candy the Easter Bunny had given him earlier.
Accompanying the boy was Natalie Clark of Boardman, who’s engaged to Nicholas’ father, Curtis.
Holiday plans include visiting family members and more egg hunts, Clark said.
Besides scurrying into designated sections of the park for their finds, the youngsters had plenty to do that related to Easter. Activities included a coloring contest, face painting, a bean-bag toss, games, designing Easter cards, bunny-hop sack races and a scavenger hunt for those age 8 to 10.
Also making an appearance was the Easter Bunny, who shook the hands of children and adults before distributing candy to eager youngsters.
In addition to providing fun for the kids, the event was intended to get the word out about the Wick Park Neighborhood Association, noted Deb Weaver, an association organizer.
The main purpose of the group, which formed last year and has about 57 members, is to revitalize the park and surrounding areas, Weaver explained.
“We want to increase our ranks,” she added.
The Easter egg hunt came together within the last three or four weeks, after which Brown and Gillam got on board and donated money to the effort, noted Maggie Pentz, event coordinator. Pentz and Weaver, both of whom live close to the park, decided that such a gathering was needed in the vicinity, she explained.
Assisting with registration, setup and the coloring contest were members of Ursuline High School’s Interact Club and Students of Stewardship.