Egg drop fun for all

By Austin Schmidt
Register Herald

April 8, 2015 - The sounds of spring rang throughout the Word of Faith’s Ultimate Helicopter Egg Drop at the Preble County YMCA on Saturday, April 4.

Children laughing and playing outside are some of the first signs of spring, and spring could be heard all afternoon at the event held during the YMCA’s Healthy Kids/Safe Community Day.

According to Word of Faith Pastor Justin Wiegand, the estimated number of kids participating was right around 1,000 — registration was capped at 2,000 to assure that no children would be turned away. According to the Word of Faith website, over 40,000 eggs were to be hunted by children up to 10 years old.

The event featured more than just the helicopter egg drop. Children were also able to take photographs with the Easter Bunny, play in “bounce houses,” slide down blow-up slides and participate in several other carnival type rides and games.

Wiegand thanked the 15 or so outside businesses who helped provide many of the games and activities for children to participate in throughout the day.

The event had three different age groups for the Easter egg hunts. Children who were under three years old had their own egg hunt with the help of parents. But the feature event was for the age groups of four to six, and seven to ten, when a helicopter flew over and dropped the eggs onto the field where the hunt would take place.

At around 2:15 the buzzing sound of helicopter blades could be heard from the helicopter coming from Henny Penny’s parking lot and that received a large cheer from those in attendance once it could be seen on the horizon. Once all the eggs hit the ground, children ran on to the field with laughing and smiling faces to hunt down the eggs which just fell from the sky.

The helicopter made a return visit about 45 minutes later to drop the eggs for the seven to ten year olds.

Wiegand explained, a core group of 15 individuals helped organize the event and all together about 180 volunteers worked the day of to make it all possible. Wiegand said this event, along other events like it are really important to the church.

“We love doing things for the community, our partnership with the Y has been great… and overall this has been a really good experience. I think those who have come out are having a really good time.”

The gymnasium inside the YMCA was also full of people and booths set up by local businesses and local government departments providing free information and demonstrations to people of the community on how to live a healthier lifestyle. Fit Kids challenges and door prizes were also part of the Healthy Kids/Safe Community program which was hosted by the YMCA.