Friday, March 29, 2024
39.0°F

KCFR won't hold PF egg hunt

by Brian Walker
| March 20, 2010 12:00 AM

POST FALLS - The Easter bunny will no longer be hopping through Q'emiln Park.

One of the area's oldest Easter egg hunts will no longer be held in Post Falls.

Post Falls Fire, now Kootenai County Fire and Rescue, started the event in the mid-1970s.

An increase in demands on the department and Post Falls' growth from about 4,000 to 25,000 during that timespan led to the decision, said Jim Lyon, KCFR spokesman.

"The event has outgrown what the department can provide with the current financial and time restraints," Lyon said. "KCFR sincerely regrets that it can no longer provide the annual hunt it has sponsored."

Roughly 500 youth have participated in the hunt in recent years.

Lyon said the event used to be one of only a few public Easter egg hunts in the area. Now it is one of several with more churches and other organizations holding them.

"Fortunately, along with the growth, many new opportunities have been made available to the children and residents of the area from numerous organizations," Lyon said. "With so many other organizations already doing Easter egg hunts, it seems that our energy, time and expenses can be better used elsewhere."

Post Falls' Sheila Benson, who has taken her children to the hunt for the past two years, said it's unfortunate the event has been canceled but also understands the fire department has to prioritize activities due to the growth of the hunt and community.

"We'll just have to take them to another one and I'm sure they'll understand," she said of her kids. "I'd just hate to see too many events in Post Falls go down because they are part of what gives it a community feel."

Lyon said organizing a hunt, including stuffing plastic eggs with candy, soliciting businesses for prize donations and setting up the event itself, is time intensive and over quickly. The department also used to color hard-boiled eggs for the event, but stopped that a few years ago.

Lyon said the event grew to the point where the number of eggs each kid could collect was limited. It has also drawn more youth from outside Post Falls in recent years.

Lyon said when KCFR's events committee had to pare the list of a plethora of community activities the department is involved with, it decided to focus on those that are mostly tied to the fire department such as open houses, tours, career days, parades, programs reaching out to those in need and school programs.

"We can justify an open house because it shows the public's equipment," Lyon said. "We will continue to strive to be an integral part of the community through our many events. To better serve the community in these areas while continuing to maintain the utmost quality in emergency response, KCFR is re-evaluating its participation in all its events to make sure we not only continue to support the community, but can do so at the highest level possible.

"We want to do activities that are related to the fire department and not replicating others."