AUBURN #- More than 9,000 multicolored eggs were spread across the lawns of Hoopes Park early Saturday morning as hundreds of eager children gathered for the annual Owasco-Fleming Kiwanis Easter Egg Hunt.

Willard Schwarting, club president, said that the hunt has been going on for nearly 60 years, while he and his wife, Jean, have been involved for 35.

“This is great,” Jean said. “It gets kids from the whole city of Auburn involved.”

“It started a little slow this year,” Willard said in the minutes before the children were allowed to begin the hunt. “But in the last 10 minutes or so it has really picked up, it looks like we'll have a good turnout this year.”

In the weeks leading up to the hunt, Owasco-Fleming Kiwanis members spent their spare time packing plastic eggs with candy.

The Schwartings arrived at the park extra early Saturday, and, with the help of the East Middle School Honor Society

and the Rainbow Girls, began hiding eggs around the park.

The Easter Bunny was also on hand to help the festivities.

“The kids really like that,” Jean said. “I think it's really nice for them to see the Easter Bunny here and get their picture and he hands out suckers to everybody after the hunt.”

Hidden among the more than 9,000 eggs were a handful of eggs with special notes attached, announcing that that finder had won a special prize, like a basket of stuffed animals or a bicycle, one for each age group.

“The kids love it,” Willard said. “We got some really nice prizes donated by Wal-Mart; they have been very kind sponsors to us for this over the last few years.”

Four-year-old Connor Gasper was one of the lucky winners of a new bike.

“I always came to this when I was little,” Connor's mother, Erin, said. “So it has become a tradition and now I bring my kids to it every year.”

And Connor was simply eager to get out and try his new bike.

“I like it,” Connor said. “It is red. I'm really happy.”

Across town, at Herman Field at the Booker T. Washington Center, another crowd of children eagerly awaited the

start of the seventh annual Men With A Purpose Men's Club Easter Egg Hunt.

“There are seven of us,” club president David McLeod said. “We get together do things like sponsor families for Christmas and Thanksgiving and this is an extension of what we do with that. It is all giveaways, just our way to give a little something back to the community.”

Year after year, club members have been impressed with the way the hunt has grown.

“It just gets bigger and better every year,” said club vice-president Charles Humphrey Sr. “Last year we had around 200 kids and I think we have a good turnout this year too.”

Each of the club members buys around 10 dozen eggs each and colors them one by one before they are hidden throughout the fields.

And as the hunters lined up, they couldn't wait to hit the field and find some eggs.

“It is fun,” said Cassidy Hetrick, 10. “You get run around and find eggs and then you get prizes.”

Hidden among the many festive eggs were two gold and two silver eggs, the silver eggs being for gift certificates and the gold eggs holding the grand prize, a new bike for each of the lucky winners.

Twelve-year-old Destiny Parks found the winning eggs.

“I was just walking around and there it was,” Parks said. “It was right there behind a tree. It feels pretty good.”

All the prizes were bought by the men's group.

“We just want to give the kids something fun,” McLeod said. “The Hoopes Park one is so big, we want kids to have an opportunity to do something like this and have a good time.”