Commentary By Danielle Pelkey

The North Jefferson News



Was this weekend crazy for anyone else? I felt like I was trying to fit the whole summer into one day on Saturday.

The weather was perfect for anything from canoeing to cutting the grass.

We started off with t-ball pictures and a t-ball game at the new Miracle League Field. Then we made our way to all of the festivities of the season.

If you didn’t hit up at least one of the area egg hunts, then you really missed out. We were able to attend two egg hunts on Saturday, and boy did I feel it.

The first was our church Easter egg hunt. We got there too late for the actual hunting of the eggs, but of course we made it in time for the food and baskets. We indulged in hot dogs and desserts until there were eggs coming out of our ears.

After this, we made our way to a cookout at Peachtree Crossings. As soon as we had finished there, we headed home, took showers and then went right back out the door to the Gardendale Park and Recreations nighttime Easter egg hunt.

At this particular hunt, there was only about 2,000 people in a 100 square foot section. It really wasn’t that ridiculous, but it was really jam-packed. It’s so exciting to see our community come together for the kids.

Once again there were hot dogs and hamburgers to be eaten, inflatables to be jumped in and eggs to be found. When 758 children (of course that is just a rough estimate) go after 500 eggs at the same time, you would expect utter chaos. The strange thing is that I did not see one fight break out. There were no punches thrown (except between siblings) and all were still wearing smiles at the end of the evening.

The Church Revived and the City of Gardendale worked wonderfully together to make the evening a great success. I had never hunted for Easter eggs in the dark with a flashlight, but I would love to do it again. There are probably still some eggs hidden in that field, but not for lack of effort.

They were already announcing winners while some were still on hands and knees with their little flash lights trying to find golden eggs.

This was yet another family-filled weekend in our community, and once again I’m proud to say that I live around such wonderful people as yourselves.