The Saturday of the Easter Egg Hunt Easter was a gorgeous, sunny day and the Hoboken Grace staff and over 180 volunteers who gave of their time, were all excited to be there. This year’s hunt was particularly meaningful as we had to cancel the hunt last year due to the pandemic.

This year the hunt looked slightly different due to the extra safety measures we took to make sure the event could happen safely for all the volunteers and attendees. One of the biggest changes was to create multiple individual hunting pads where children could hunt in small groups and remain socially distanced, versus the massive hunt area free-for-all of years past. It was a new system we implemented but it went off seamlessly! Every single child was able to hunt and have a great time and all the families had a wonderful experience. So many fun memories were made, the kids had a blast, and everyone was safe and cared for.

Over 1650 people attended for a 78% attendance rate of those who registered. It was awesome to see that we could still have such an amazing impact on the community but also keep everyone safe. I worked the event for the afternoon shift helping coordinate the hunt area and I spoke to so many families from the community who had attended in years past. Everyone I spoke to was so grateful the hunt had returned, so many expressed how much they missed it last year, and how much it meant to them to be able to come back. People thanked us and every attendee was understanding and patient with the new protocol that took slightly longer to ensure safety. It was so well organized that the wait times were minimal, everything was incredibly efficient, and every single child who came through, got to hunt and collect as many eggs as they wanted.

In addition to the egg hunt, there were multiple stations of photos with the Easter Bunny and fun Easter backdrops, we gave away over 300 “Hunt to Go” gift bags for every child, and there was an arts and crafts station. There were also bins throughout the event filled with eggs for people to guess the correct number to win a prize. 421 people made guesses and every bin was won with a perfect guess made for each bin.

Every attendee and volunteer had an incredible time and we were all feeling the infectious energy and excitement. It was unbelievable to see how far we’ve come in one year! Even with the threat of Covid still lingering, the success of this huge event is a testament to Hoboken Grace and all of our people who are committed to the mission of impacting our community with God’s love and doing it in a safe and responsible way.

Seeing what God has been able to do this year and the joy that some of things we lost during the pandemic are coming back again, brings us so much hope and enthusiasm for what is to come and what God can make possible with our willingness and faithfulness to help support the mission.

There is so much more to come and through the Home Initiative, and our church members who have been away starting to come back to Hoboken to re-engage the mission, attend in person, and commit to making an impact in this community again through their service, means that this year will be epic and we can’t wait to see what God will do through your generosity and service in 2021.

If this first major event of the year, the Easter Egg Hunt, was any indication of what we have to look forward to, this year is going to be unbelievable!