Egg hunt brings joy to Eastbluff

Paul Clinton

Little Anthony Rath grabbed at the colorful, plastic eggs laying on

the grass.

As his father Francis held out the front of his shirt like an apron,

the 2-year-old dropped the candy-filled eggs into it and smiled.

Anthony was happy.

The boy’s joy came at the annual Eastbluff Easter Egg Hunt at

Eastbluff Park. The event, now in its 19th year, is put on by Newport

Beach and the Eastbluff Village Center. The shops in the center donate

the candy.

“It’s great,” Francis Rath said about the event. “It gets everybody

together. It’s fun for the kids.”

Children ages 12 and younger attended the Saturday event, which drew

about 650 children -- equipped with baskets, hand-made bunny ears and

eager faces.

The children were also treated to a special guest appearance by the

Easter Bunny, who arrived riding a Newport Beach Fire Department truck.

The bunny, or at least a human wearing a furry suit, stepped off the

truck and was mobbed the minute he stepped onto a cement walkway heading

into the park.

Children pulled at the suit, grabbed his outstretched palm and huddled

around him for pictures taken by mom or dad.

Terri Mulcahy’s 2-year-old son Brandon was a little frightened by the

bunny.

“He wasn’t quite sure about it at first, but he like it,” Mulcahy

said. “He didn’t touch the Easter Bunny.”

The three-and-a-half-hour event was market by rotating egg hunts,

divided up by age group.

At the crack of 10 a.m., groups of children ages 3 and younger flooded

past colored pennants strung across the left-field section of the park’s

baseball diamond.

The children swiftly scooped up the plastic eggs, smiling and giggling

as they went. But, there were enough eggs to go around, said Trenton

Veches, the recreation coordinator at the Newport Beach Community Service

Department.

“There’s no competition,” Veches said. “Every kid gets an egg.”

There were also other activities, including face painting and a crafts

event where children could decorate pastel sand pails with felt Easter

shapes.

The crafts took place at Eastbluff Village Center, which is owned by

the Irvine Co. and located across the street from the park.

-- Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .