Thanks For Supporting Our Annual Easter Egg Hunt

Our 12th annual 'Tristates Largest Easter Egg Hunt' is in the books!  There are a few people I'd like to thank.

I can't believe we just finished our 12th annual event!  If you have a moment, I'd love to give you a brief history of how our hunt came to be what it is today.

Twelve years ago we thought it would be fun to hold an egg hunt.  Thinking nobody would really come, our committee figured that a thousand eggs would be more than enough.  Boy, were we wrong.

The day of the event we scattered the eggs around the University of Dubuque Campus and watched as a few hundred cars and five hundred people showed up.  As we gave the 'go ahead,' the kids swiped up all the eggs in a matter of six seconds.  Kids were crying.  Parents were furious.  How were we supposed to know so many people would come?

I said to myself... "Next year we gotta go bigger!"

Flash forward another year.  Our second annual event.  I spent a week at the radio station wrapping ten-thousand eggs.  We again met on a Saturday morning to dump the eggs on the football field at the University of Dubuque.

We started the countdown... "Five... four... three... two... one... Go!"

The field was immediately flooded with kids.  This time it took almost 25 seconds for the hundreds of kids to pick up the eggs.  Again I saw a few kids crying and a few upset parents.

Again, I said to myself... "Next year we gotta go bigger."

Since then we've been doing over 30,000 eggs every year.  We've moved to a few different venues and have seen support from many groups and individuals over the years.

I have to say thanks to Steve at Hobby Lobby, who orders the eggs for us every year.

Thanks to our friends at the Noon Optimists of Dubuque, who not only give us financial support for the eggs and candy, but also show up to help wrap the eggs and work crowd control at the event.

Thanks to Cherry Lanes, Sam's Club and Sun Tan City, who also helped provide us with everything we needed for the event.

Thanks to Jamie and Cozette at the Dubuque County Fairgrounds for helping us have a home for the hunt over the last three years.

Thanks to Scott and Kris Kelly from S. Kelly Photography for helping set up our tickets and get them ordered.

Thanks to Berta at Little Folks Trading Post for selling all our tickets in advance.

Thanks to Tom and the rest of the folks at LT Amusements for donating a bounce and slide to us EVERY YEAR.

Thanks to all the staff at our radio stations who do such a good job promoting the event, especially Jeff Robb (who's been doing our PA announcing for as long as I can remember) and Ken Peiffer who helps in every way and has great ideas to boot!

With your help we continue to raise great money for the Children's Miracle Network through this event.  Thanks for your support!  Hope to see you again next Easter!

~CMF