Egg-stra Special
OAKLAND TWP — Searching for brightly colored eggs filled with sweet treats and hidden in tall green grass is an Easter tradition for many Butler County families.
Donna Bortmes and David Garis, both of East Butler, have taken the small, family Easter Egg hunt to the next level, filling about 2,300 plastic eggs for more than 70 children.
“When we started out, it was my grandchildren and then we added our friends' children, and then it was all the neighbor kids,” Bortmes said.
For 21 years Bortmes has coordinated the free hunt for friends and family.
“It's grandchildren,” Bortmes said. “You'll understand when you get them.”
Garis prepares all year by collecting his change in a bucket.
A month before the event, the eggs are brought down from the attic to be stuffed with about 40 pounds of candy.
“You'll have about 10 boxes of eggs I think,” Bortmes said. “Because each box has about 250 eggs in them.”
When filling the eggs, each one gets candy and every other egg gets money, either coins, $1 or $5.
Garis has been helping Bortmes with the hunt since the mid 1990s.
“We had a problem when we first let him in on it. It was just the first year until he got scolded,” Bortmes said. “He was grabbing eggs, eating the candy and putting the empty wrapper in the egg and that quite disturbed the little kids, so now he's not allowed to do the eggs.”
Even without helping with the eggs, there is still plenty to do to get ready for the hunt, which was held this year on March 31.The pair separates the children into age categories of up to 4, 5 to 8, and 9 to 12.Each child is given a grocery bag — double layered — to hunt with since normal Easter baskets are too small.Friends of Bortmes and Garis help them hide eggs around McCullough Park on Davis Road. Each age group is given a different section of the park to search. It doesn't take long for the weeks of hard work to be snatched up.“In five minutes they usually have it wiped out,” Garis said.Once all the eggs are collected, it's time for prizes.“Every child gets a prize and then there are big prizes,” Bortmes said. “If they bring me a spider — I have rubber spiders — and if they bring me a rubber spider they win a prize.”Stuffed toys, squirt guns, hula hoops and even badminton sets are some of the items.
“(The prizes) vary from year to year,” Garis said. “It's what you find on sale (at different) places.”This year the children were even visited by the Easter Bunny, otherwise known as Josh Brewer of Karns City.The hunt allows adults to hang out, as well.Garis and Bortmes provide hot dogs and beverages, so friends can catch up as the children play.Bortmes started the tradition when she and Garis lived in Karns City. Since moving to East Butler, neighbors and friends from both areas gather for the day.The group prepares for all types of weather.“We've had it where there were two inches of snow on the ground. We've had it where it was so hot that the kids opened the eggs and everything was melted,” Bortmes said.The group hides the eggs no more than an hour before the hunt begins to slow the melting on warm days.“When we lived in Karns City, I can still remember I had to wash every egg because there was melted chocolate in them,” Bortmes said. “I felt so bad. The kids would pick them up and say, ‘Look what I found! ... Eww.'”
Even with all the work involved, Bortmes and Garis agree it's worth it for the memories.“The one year as our grandkids were getting older, Austin (Bortmes, now 12, of Karns City) thought he was being real slick, because he had the inside story that if he picked an egg up and it rattled, there was no dollar in it, there was change,” Garis said.“He'd pick them up, shake them and throw them down, so he'd only pick up the eggs that didn't rattle.”Garis said whenever the hunt was over he asked Austin how much money he had found.The boy was disappointed, because he forgot that the candy wouldn't rattle either. Many of the other children had more money than he did.The pair tried to end the tradition last year, with the annual cost reaching about $500, but their children would have none of it.They wanted the hunt to continue for their own children.“I don't think the kids realize how much it adds up to by the time you buy all that candy,” Bortmes said.After thinking about all the memories they've made with their seven grandchildren, ages six months to 12 years, the pair couldn't say no.“I wouldn't of done this for my kids,” Bortmes said. “They weren't as much fun.”
