Mother Nature can’t stop the Easter Bunny. Despite frigid 30-degree temperatures and bursts of cold wind gusts, hundreds of children lined Memorial Park on March 25 for the annual North Royalton Kiwanis Easter Egg Hunt.
Dressed more for a day of playing outside in the snow, the children were sent into the fenced-in playground area in increments of 30 to dash around collecting colorful eggs hidden by members of the North Royalton High School Key Club. A member of the Key Club also donned a furry white Easter Bunny costume and walked the grounds visiting with children and their families and posing for pictures. As each group of 30 left the playground area proudly toting their eggs, members of the Key Club would quickly replenish the eggs and hide more for the next batch of children to find.
Each child was tasked with finding 10 eggs a piece, and every participant received a delicious sugar cookie at the end of their quest, along with the tasty candy hidden inside their plastic eggs. The sugar cookies, 200 total, were donated by Royalton Woods, a Randall Residence, along with the services of 25 residents of the senior living facility, staff, and volunteers who assisted in filling 3,000 plastic eggs with 8,000 pieces of candy, according to information released by Kathleen Williams, life enrichment coordinator. The effort is all part of the State Road facility’s annual service project assisting the North Royalton Kiwanis. Royalton Woods, A Randall Residence, has been donating their services for the event for more than a decade.”The residents particularly look forward to this opportunity to give back to our local children,” Williams said in a press release submitted by Royalton Woods, A Randall Residence. “The knowledge that their work will bring smiles to hundreds of children warms their lives as much as the rising temperatures.”
North Royalton Mayor Robert Stefanik and his wife, Janice, took part in the Egg Hunt, assisting their 2-year-old granddaughter, Emelia, with finding eggs. City Council President Larry Antoskiewicz was also in attendance, along with hundreds of young children and their families. Each year, the line to get in to search for eggs extends all the way to the City Hall parking lot. Participants line up along the asphalt pathway that leads up to the playground. The line stretches even further when the weather is warm.
As any northeastern Ohioan knows, Easters are always a total gamble weather-wise.
“I’ve seen it be 28 degrees and the Key Club members are shoveling away snow off the playground, and then I’ve had it some years be 70 degrees and we’re all in short-sleeve shirts,” said John Burke, secretary-treasurer of the North Royalton Kiwanis Club. “Whatever the weather brings, the people always come.”
The North Royalton Kiwanis Club has been organizing the Annual Egg Hunt for more than 50 years, Burke said.
When asked what he enjoyed most about the event, Burke said it was “seeing all the kids so happy.”
Jen Martinez, a North Royalton mother of 5-year-old twins, Julianna and Dominic, has been coming to the Annual Egg Hunt for the past three years. Every year that she’s been attending, it’s never been warmer than 40 degrees.
“It’s so much fun though and the kids love seeing the Easter Bunny and getting their candy,” she said.
North Royalton High School Key Club members Sam Corona and Paige Rider, both juniors, volunteered their time March 25 to hide eggs throughout the playground.
“It’s always a fun time,” Rider said. “As members of Key Club, you have to do 20 hours of service per school year. I decided to sign up for the Egg Hunt because it’s a nice thing to do for the kids.”

By SARA MACHO HILL
Contributing Writer