Children press up against the caution tape lining the egg hunt area eagerly awaiting the start time. Photo by Lisa Fay/The Connection
“I love this town,” said Del. Mark Keam (D-35), into his Facebook Live video as he watched kids scatter about picking up eggs. Children and their parents descended upon the Town Green on Saturday morning to partake in the Old Fashioned Easter Egg Roll put on by the Town of Vienna and Historic Vienna Inc. Lilly Dunning Widman, Special Events Coordinator for the Department of Parks and Recreation, hadn’t even finished her countdown from ten before kids tore through the caution tape and into the field of eggs. Screams of disappointment and joyful cheers filled the air as the brightly colored eggs were picked up within the span of a manic minute.
“We had about 350 people come this morning,” said Widman. “We boil 240 eggs for the egg decorating and egg roll stations and then 2,000 eggs for the egg hunt. So we have about 2,200 eggs to make our big egg event happen,” said Widman. In order to ready the green, the Town goes through preparations. “We create little hunt areas for the kids, pound in posts, create a bunny visiting area, egg decorating station, and a race area for the egg roll,” said Widman. “This event has been happening for almost 20 years and it gets better every year.”
Before the oncoming mayhem of egg searching children began, Vienna Arts Society’s members welcomed attendees with a statement regarding 42 benches spread throughout Vienna as a celebration for VAS’s 50’s anniversary called “Take a Seat Vienna.”
Benches painted with town scenes, flowers, or famous characters invite people to sit and appreciate the town. They will be stationed around town until the Fall, when there will be an auction on Nov. 2 at the Vienna Community Center. A brochure detailing where the benches are is available in the Freeman Store.