Skip to content

Kids, eggs and a magic bunny

Hundreds of kids braved chilly temperatures to take to the snow and ice on Williamson Lake to search for hidden treats during the third annual Easter Eggstravaganza in Rankin Inlet on April 20.

Emergency services personnel, from left, Maryann Aksadjuak, Scott Morey, George Aksadjuak, Kyle Lowe and Hannah Hutchinson keep the tasty hotdogs coming during the third annual Easter Eggstravaganza in Rankin Inlet on April 20, 2019. Photo courtesy Mark Wyatt
Emergency services personnel, from left, Maryann Aksadjuak, Scott Morey, George Aksadjuak, Kyle Lowe and Hannah Hutchinson keep the tasty hotdogs coming during the third annual Easter Eggstravaganza in Rankin Inlet on April 20, 2019.
Photo courtesy Mark Wyatt

The event is sponsored, organized and run by members of the Rankin Inlet Fire Rescue EMS.

The hunt for the hidden Easter treats got underway at 11:30 a.m. for three groups of kids aged one to four, five to seven and eight to 13.

The gathering also had a bonfire and plenty of free hotdogs, cookies and hot chocolate for the kids, parents and grandparents to enjoy at the event.

Rankin Fire Chief Mark Wyatt started the Eggstravaganza in 2017 and said the event has grown a little each year.

He said the only downside to the event has been Mother Nature's chilly temperatures every single year.

“I thought the weather would be much warmer this year, but the temperature hit the -30C with the windchill on the ice once again,” said Wyatt.

“We added more candy and had more people come out anyway, despite the cold.

“This year the Northern store baked-up lots of homemade cookies and did some jelly rolls for us, which was really nice.

“Next year, if Easter is in March again, we may explore the idea of holding it inside because our new arena is large enough to host a pretty big egg hunt if we decide to try something like that.”

While the cold weather doesn't manage to dampen the kids' enthusiasm for finding the Easter eggs, it does manage to cut the event a little short and lessen its social aspect somewhat.

Wyatt said people start showing-up between 11 and 11:30 a.m. and they have a big crowd of people to start the event but, by noon, the Easter egg hunt is over and most people are gone.

He said if it was warmer out, more people would probably hang around and socialize a bit more.