When Carol Gibbs finished her countdown for kids anxious to gather up Easter candy, a flurry of activity followed.
Some had parents or grandparents in tow, while others tried their luck alone, filling their baskets with various candies and goodies.
Although it was the first such event sponsored by the American Legion, American Legion Auxiliary and the 40/8 and 8/40 clubs of Mitchell, the candy scramble was pure Easter tradition for the approximately 300 who attended Saturday at the Hitchcock Park softball fields.
"It's neat for kids," said Rick Rickett, of Mitchell, as he watched his 4-year-old grandson, Jonathan Voigt, hunt for candy. "It's a real good event -- keeps them entertained." Rickett stayed off to the side taking photos, as did many of the parents and grandparents. "I just watch and take pictures," he said. "I let him do the work." As Jonathan excitedly continued his candy search, he enlisted Grandpa Rick to help him hold the quickly filling candy bag. Alexis Rupp walked the field with her 1-year-old daughter, Maddison, and other family members. Maddison kept up, holding a basket nearly as tall as she was. "It's awesome," said Rupp. "It's really neat that they do this for the kids and really cool to see everybody out here." Rupp, formerly of Mitchell, now lives in St. Paul, Minn., and was back in town visiting family for Easter. "We just came home to see family. I was not expecting something like this to be going on, so we were really glad that it was."
With Saturday's moderate temperatures, Gibbs was very pleased with the turnout.
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"We decided that we needed to do a community event," said Gibbs.
The event was organized for two groups: kids 5 and under and kids 6 and older, each on a separate softball field. Around $300 was spent on the 35 bags of candy.
"We had no idea what the turnout would be so we broke it up into two groups," said Gibbs. "We may do a few changes for next year as it looks like we had a lot more younger kids."
And good news for those who sought out the goodies Saturday: Gibbs said the amount of candy probably will be increased for next year.
"It's a fun day and I think the kids enjoy that they get to do a bit of exercising. It seems like the parents and grandparents were very happy with it," she added, noting that a number of parents and kids came up and said "thank you."
