Jon Johnson Photo/Gila Herald: The town of Pima celebrated its sixth annual Easter Extravaganza on Friday. It was this youngster’s first egg hunt.
By Jon Johnson
PIMA – The sixth annual Pima Easter Extravaganza is in the books as another successful town-sponsored event.
The annual Easter Egg hunt in Pima was moved to Friday this year to not coincide with the Pima Fire Department’s Fire Fest Car Show fundraiser on Saturday.
In addition to the candy-filled Easter eggs, toys, and grand prizes, those in attendance had the opportunity to enter an Easter Coloring Contest and have a meet-and-greet with the Easter Bunny himself. This year, Logan Batty, 13, did the Yeoman’s work in the bunny suit as temperatures rose.
The change in the day didn’t matter much to Pima Town Manager Vernon Batty, who reveled at the opportunity to put on the community event for the children during the religious holiday.
“Any excuse we have to get everybody together and remind them that they’re part of a community,” Batty said. “And, of course, we invite people from Thatcher and Safford to come down and have a good time as well, and anything we can do for the kids to remind them of what a special time of year this is.”
Pima Vice Mayor Sherrill Teeter and Town Manager Batty spearheaded the event and were assisted by their families and a couple of boys they could wrangle. The motley crew dispersed 7,500 eggs on three separate ball fields to categorize each field into age groups: newborn to 3 years old, 4 – 8, and 9 – 12.
“So much fun,” Teeter said. “(We’re) looking forward to building it bigger and better . . . If it wasn’t for the community we couldn’t do this. It’s great being in Pima.”
The eggs were mostly filled with candy, but some special prize eggs granted the finder a variety of toys and cash, and there was one grand prize of a new bicycle on each field.
Noah Rascon, 22 months, of Pima, was lucky in his first-ever Easter Egg hunt and was the grand prize winner for his field.
The middle field grand prize bike went to Brynlee Curtis, of Fort Thomas, and the final field grand prize bike went to David Benavidez, of Safford.
The town is still judging the coloring contest, with first place in each of the three age groups being $10, second place being $5, and third place being a $2 bill. If the judges deem an entrant extra special like they had last year, a grand prize of a gift basket and $10 will be awarded.
While the event seemingly went off without a hitch, it was due to the immense efforts of the Teeter and Batty families and those who assisted them. As the town grows, the amenities continue to grow with them as well and the town is asking those who would like to help with such events to reach out to Pima Town Hall to let them know.
“With just our families helping it’s a little daunting and a little hard,” Teeter said. “Because we’re getting bigger but our staff is the same size.”
An hour after the event began it was cleared and cleaned.
“Thank you so much for the community for coming out and showing up strong for us and cleaning up all these eggs for us,” Batty said. “It takes a while to spread all these eggs it takes them no time no time to get them picked up. So, thank you so much.
View the Gila Herald’s Photo Album of the event on our Facebook page. If you haven’t already, like and follow to stay informed.
