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Easter Extravaganza brings family fun
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The Easter Extravaganza at J.F. Gregory Park included 30,000 eggs. Photo by Hollie Lewis.

J.F. Gregory Park was filled with families and colorful eggs on Saturday when New Beginnings Church and the city of Richmond Hill hosted its 13th annual Easter Extravaganza.

The event featured candy-filled eggs, food, drinks, games, face painting, bounce houses, live entertainment, a prayer tent and photo opportunities with the Easter Bunny.

“Some things that make this event great is that there are 10 different age groups, 1-10 years old, which makes for a more fairer and safer event. Also if a child is timid or late to this event we hold back eggs to be distributed to them so that no child should leave the park empty handed.” said Pastor Steve Lane.

“My daughter’s actually going to be three on the 26th of April and we felt like it was the perfect time for her to come because she can enjoy all of the festivities.” said Britt Porcase.

Marc Steiner said, “We come here like every year, the Easter egg hunt is such a big event. The Richmond Hill community has gotten much larger, you see so many people this year compared to last year

Since their first Easter Extravaganza back in 2007, New Beginnings Church has maintained a vision to offer a free, family oriented event to the Richmond Hill community.

“Back then we just had the egg hunt, and cookout. We started with about 10,000 candy-filled eggs and now we put out over 30,000 eggs.” Lane said.

The Easter Extravaganza has not only grown in size, but also has non Richmond Hill residents talking.

Cindy Novak said, “My husband and I traveled from Burlington, North Carolina to visit our daughter and husband and grandchildren. We wanted to come this morning and play on the playground and walk the trails and when we drove up, we saw all the festivities and we’re so excited that they have all these Easter games and Easter Egg hunt”.

Hinesville resident Ashlee Quick said, “Everything that we saw out here wasn’t listed on the flyer so I’m surprised about how big this event actually is. I didn’t realize there was going to be facepainting and all this other stuff out here. So that’s pretty good and we might even stop at their church one Sunday.”

In order to make the Easter Extravaganza happen every year it takes volunteers. Pastor Lane expressed that the vast majority of volunteers who work many hours in preparation for the event as well as the event itself are from New Beginnings Community Church. “We try to teach our members to be active in loving and serving others.” Lane added.

Volunteer Heidi Lane said, “I think it’s a great opportunity for the community to get together, do something fun. You don’t have to spend money and you can come out and have fun for free.”

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