When Easter comes around, many children spend a morning or afternoon searching their houses and yards for colorful eggs the Easter Bunny has left for them. Neighborhoods and churches get in on the fun as well, hosting Easter-egg hunts with hidden, and not-so-hidden, eggs for children to find.
In Cabot, one church has taken the Easter-egg hunt to a whole new level. ThatChurch.com will host its annual Great Big Egg Drop at the Cabot High School football stadium on April 4. Unlike many Easter-egg hunts, the Easter Bunny for the Great Big Egg Drop will take to the skies above the football field to make sure there are plenty of eggs for all participants.
“Thousands of eggs are placed on the field, and then even more eggs are dropped onto the field by a helicopter,” said Janna Flory, one of the coordinators of the event. “It’s an amazing family event that people definitely don’t want to miss.”
The Great Big Egg Drop is one of the largest events the church holds each year. The Sherwood campus of ThatChurch.com will also host an egg drop at the Sylvan Hills Football Field.
Volunteers get to the field early in the morning to set up to make sure there are eggs on the field even before the helicopter shows up. Children ages 1-11 are invited to participate, and as they file into the stadium’s bleachers with their families, volunteers make sure there is entertainment to fill the time before the helicopter arrives. At the apex of the event, everyone in attendance will shout to the helicopter, “Drop those eggs!” and the children are then allowed to run out and gather the eggs.
Flory said this free event is one way the church likes to make an impact on people outside of its walls, especially at Easter.
“The main goal at ThatChurch.com is to know Jesus and to make him known,” she said. “This is just one way for the church to reach out to the local communities and provide free family fun for everyone in the community to experience, all while showing the love of God.”
Flory is directly involved with the VIP section at the Cabot Great Big Egg Drop that is set up for children with special needs. When the eggs are dropped and the children are allowed to run onto the field to get their eggs, those with special needs could easily get hurt or left behind. That’s why they get an area just for them.
“During the egg drop, our VIP members are treated to a special rock-star experience that includes a special area dedicated to the VIP families and [an area] on the field itself to allow VIP members to ‘hunt’ eggs at their own pace,” Flory said.
The children seem to have a blast every year, Flory said, but they are not the only ones who look forward to the Easter event. Coordinators and church volunteers have fun, and even though it is a lot of work to coordinate the Great Big Egg Drop, Flory said, she is grateful for the opportunity to be involved year after year.
“To be able to see just how much goes into the event and the grand scale of volunteers needed and the amount of families in the community we can reach is extremely humbling,” she said. “To see the children’s faces light up when they walk into the stadium and know that they are going to have such a memorable time is by far my favorite moment.”
More information for the Great Big Egg Drop can be found at www.thatchurch.com/#/home/egg-drop.
Staff writer Angela Spencer can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or aspencer@arkansasonline.com.