New Easter ‘Eggstravaganza’ event set Sunday in Marksville

By RAYMOND L. DAYE
Co-Editor
Easter is supposed to be a time of joy -- especially for children.
With that thought in mind, Jeremy Hudson went about the task of trying to develop an event that would be focused on the children -- a community-wide Easter egg hunt.
The Easter “Eggstravaganza” will be held March 27 at the D.A. Jordan Complex on Martin Luther King St. in Marksville. There will be several egg runs for different age groups during the day. Egg hunts will be held from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The egg hunts will be for children ages 1-12. For middle/high school teens, there will be a special prize drawing, he said.
In addition to the egg hunt, there will be games, performances and other activities.
Thousands of plastic eggs, filled with candy and prizes, will be scattered around the baseball field area.
The event is being sponsored by Whirlwind E-Z 1 Inc., a local non-profit. Hudson is the organization’s director.
There is no admission charge for the Easter Sunday event.
“I wanted an event for the community; for the kids,” Hudson said.
”I want this to be a day that these children will never forget. We have to stay focused on the kids. I just want them to have fun.”
Carrie Bonton, Whirlwind vice president, said she is excited to be able to work with Hudson and others in making the “Eggstravaganza” happen.
“Our goal would be that no child in this parish goes without an Easter basket or learning what Easter is really about,” Bonton said.
“We want them to experience an Easter egg hunt, like we had when we were growing up. Both Jeremy and I were raised in families that kept those traditions.”
Born in Marksville
Hudson was born and raised in Marksville, but moved to Atlanta, Ga., when he was 16.
He returned to Louisiana some years later and started a flooring company, J.H. Custom Floors.
After operating in Opelousas and then Lafayette, Hudson came home to Marksville. He still has customers in South Louisiana but the business is based in Marksville.
Bonton was also born and raised in Marksville, and recalls being active in many sports and clubs during her school years.
Both said it is that feeling of closeness to their community that made them want to do something to bring people in the community together for a positive, fun and wholesome activity.
Hudson said he first approached city officials with a request that he be allowed to put on the event as an individual, paying for all of the costs out of his own pocket. City officials said such an event must be sponsored by a non-profit group.
He was presented the opportunity to use an existing non-profit for the event and was given the go-ahead to organize the Easter Sunday egg hunt.
The Marksville City Council endorsed the egg hunt at its March 9 meeting, waiving all normal fees for use of the Jordan Complex and pledging bicycles not handed out at Christmas to be used as prizes for the egg hunt.
Teach to share
Hudson said that a child will be limited to only one large prize.
“We want to teach children to share,” he said. “If a child brings us four eggs with large prizes in them, they will have to pick one and we will put the other three back on the field for other children to find.”
The purpose of the day is not to accumulate “stuff,” but to have a good time with families and other children, he said.
Hudson said when he started the effort, along with members of the Whirlwind board and others in the community, his thought was that the egg hunt would just be for residents of Marksville.
Since then, he has received a lot of interest from people living throughout the parish and in surrounding parishes.
“I still have a lot of friends and business contacts in Opelousas and Lafayette,” he said. “They told me they wanted to help and donated to the “Eggstravaganza.”
“Rapides Parish has shown a lot of love for this event,” he continued. “People over there said they would like to have the same kind of event in their community.”
Hudson said it is important the public know that everything about the event is free. There will be collection boxes for donations from those who wish to donate to the organization, but the event is not a fundraiser.
That is why there will be no food sold at the event.
“We didn’t want anyone making a profit from selling food at the event, so we decided not to have any vendors,” Hudson said. “There will be free hot dogs, hamburgers, sandwiches and snacks during the day.”