Kids enjoy egg hunt, free bikes, carnival rides at Detroit’s Easter festival

Show Caption

Hundreds of colorful plastic eggs filled with candy were scattered across the ground in a fenced-off area outside Lasky Recreation Center in Detroit, as kids crowded up against the gate, waiting for their turn to scramble to pick up as many eggs as they could.

A young girl holding a pink bunny basket started filling her pockets with eggs when her basket started overflowing. A 7-year-old boy, his bag packed with eggs, hollered “I will” when the man in charge of telling the kids how long was left in their 30-second hunt asked who would be the one to collect the most eggs.

After his turn at the egg hunt finished, 5-year-old Chance Reid presented his filled bag to his mother, 31-year-old Yarnisha Matthews.

“I got a lot!” Chance said. “Look how much eggs I got.”

Chance said the egg hunt was his favorite activity at the Detroit Parks and Recreation Division’s Easter Fun Fest Saturday, which is in its 40th year. This was the first year Chance and his family had attended the festival, which featured a handful of carnival rides, bounce houses, food trucks, a magic show and circus, pony rides, an egg hunt, an Easter basket giveaway, a bike giveaway, visits with the Easter Bunny and a hutch filled with live bunnies kids could pet.

5-year-old Jacen Robinson was one of the kids clustered around the bunny hutch, poking his fingers in between the bars to pet them. Jacen giggled as the bunnies hopped around, every few seconds pointing out a new bunny for his mom to look at.

“I like them,” Jacen said. “They’re soft and hoppy.”

People started lining up at 8 a.m. Saturday for the festival, which did not begin until 1 p.m., because the first 200 kids in line were given a free bike and helmet.

Kesha Erby, of Detroit, was the first person in line at 8 a.m. so she could make sure her two children, ages 7 and 13, and five of her friends’ children, were able to get a new bike.

“It’s worth the wait,” Erby said. “They so excited. You can’t beat that.”

Another recipient of a free bike and helmet, 2-year-old Cameron Smith, sat atop his Spider-Man bike just outside the tent, his parents showing him how to use his feet to pedal. This is his first bike, said his mother Shaquila Daniel, 28, of Detroit.

“He’s been smiling since he got it,” Daniel said. “He’s big into Spider-Man.”

[email protected]