This Easter, there will be plenty to do in Innisfil with the Cookstown Grand Easter Hunt taking place Saturday, April 16, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Cookstown Curling Club.
Not only will there be an Easter egg hunt for the kids — with a visit from the Easter bunny — but there will be plenty for adults to do, too, with a scavenger hunt aimed at the parents.
“We’ll have them hunting for plastic eggs, so that way they can hand in their plastic eggs for an Easter egg goodie bag at the end and all the kids will get to go home with chocolate,” said organizer Heidi Visser. “We’ll also have crafts and fun stuff for the kids to do, too.”
Businesses that want to participate will be featured on a map for the scavenger hunt. People taking part in the scavenger hunt will receive an Easter egg bingo card and get a stamp at every business on the map they visit. When the card is full, they’ll be entered in a draw for prizes from local businesses.
Organized by the Cookstown and District Chamber of Commerce, the idea for the Easter egg hunt came together when the chamber wanted a way to get the community back out while supporting local businesses.
“My family and I are new to town and I was looking for some ways to get involved in the community and I thought it would be fun to do an Easter egg hunt,” said Visser. “I floated the idea to the chamber, and they were all very excited. We then wanted to find a way to get businesses involved so it’s like a real community event. The chamber did something for Halloween last year that was similar to the scavenger hunt, so took that idea and combined it with the Easter egg hunt.”
Over the last two years, new business and families have come to the Innisfil area, and Visser sees this as a great way for them to finally get to meet the community.
“For Easter, kids are always looking for something to do, and with COVID there hasn’t been a lot of stuff going on lately,” she said. “I think people are wanting to get out of the house and we wanted to make sure we had something for everybody with this — the kids, the adults, and the businesses. I also feel there’s been a lot of new families moving into the community and new businesses opening up, and it’s important to get everyone connected with each other.”
Based on registration, the event is already gaining major traction and Visser credits the community and businesses for wanting to get involved and make it a great Saturday.
“It’s kind of blown up way past our expectations,” she said. “We created a register link for us to have an idea of how many kids to expect for the Easter goodie bags. Right now, we have over 100 kids registered, which was way more than I expected.”
Though it wasn’t the goal of the Easter event, Visser thinks it’s the perfect way to showcase the type of effort the Cookstown and District Chamber of Commerce puts in for businesses.
“You can look at it as a fourth element to the event. With the chamber of commerce, businesses can be a member for an annual fee and we want to show businesses that they’re also getting something out of those membership fees,” she said. “This isn’t the only event we’ll be doing this year; many more events are planned. The chamber is paying for the Easter eggs and goodie bags and we have the businesses sponsoring prizes. It’s just an all-around benefit for everyone who’s involved.”
