5,000 Easter eggs, 500 kids, 5 minutes

An invisible line in the sand couldn’t hold them back.

As Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort activities manager Troy Lindquist counted down from 10, the 500 children who lined the shore Saturday morning for the resort’s 16th annual Easter Egg-Stravaganza inched closer and closer toward the egg-laden beach ahead of them.

“I’m thinking this is going to last about 25 seconds,” said Alec Ellison, 10, just before Lindquist reached zero.

And they were off. Within five minutes, the 5,000 candy-, sticker- and toy-filled eggs were all snatched up.

Nicole Franco, 12, said this year’s experience was better than last year’s when she missed the hunt because of a flat tire en route from her Costa Mesa home.

“You had to run fast because it was a blood battle out there,” said Nicole, one of about 30 youngsters from the Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter who attended the event.

After coming for the past seven years, 9-year-old Teddy Stuka of Huntington Beach knew where to look for the golden eggs, which could be traded in for a crisp $5 bill. His tenet was quality over quantity.

“They are always in the trees and bushes,” he said.

After dashing for the nearest tree, Teddy was the first to find a golden egg and gave up after that, satisfied with his loot.

Though she had already discovered a golden egg, Brianna Duran’s search was far from over, ending the day with 22 eggs.

“I just tried to run back as far as I could to the other side of the beach,” Brianna, 11, said. “Most kids stopped along the way to grab all the eggs so when I got there, no one was there yet.”

Megan Carlson, 13, didn’t find a golden egg, but was content with the whistle necklace she had already put around her neck and the Tootsie Roll she was chewing on.

But little Alec was a bit disappointed with the way things turned out. Though a 15-egg limit had been set before the hunt, he was disgruntled to find many children walked away with more.

“My plan didn’t work out so well,” he said. “There were a lot of eggs out there, but I just wasn’t fast enough.”

“When he said you can only get 15 eggs, everybody was bummed, but you have to follow the rules.”