Jennifer Poggi and Heather Sealy Jennifer Poggi and Heather Sealy

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BRENTWOOD- Every year since 2001, Swasey Central School has been hosting its famous Easter Egg Hunt.  For the past three years, they’ve also added a pancake breakfast and other festivities to this celebration.  On April 7th, from 8:30 to 10:00 AM, about 160 residents of Brentwood gathered at the school to go egg hunting; while 115 of them ate pancakes and mingled with friends and family.

“It’s fun to search for eggs with your friends.  It’s a small town event, and it’s fun to get out and see everyone,” stated Rebecca Field, a 10-year old who claims to have attended this occasion for about 5 years. Most of the people at the egg hunt and breakfast were families with very young children.  Kids seemed to thoroughly enjoy the different crafts, games, and other fun activities offered.  Some favorites included face painting, coloring, and of course meeting and receiving candy from the greatly appreciated Easter Bunny.  Joe Bird of the Brentwood Fire Department also drove a fire engine to the school, which was open for children to explore.  This is a tradition of Swasey School’s Easter Egg Hunt.

Brentwood volunteers ran almost everything during this affair. There were about 15 volunteers total.  According to the smiles on everybody’s face, they did an excellent job.  Tim Hannon, Dan Gill, and John Darmody were some of the veteran volunteers who prepared and served breakfast.  Heather Arkell provided and served juice to families.  Krista Gill supervised face painting.  Her most popular design seemed to be a bunny nose and whiskers!  The Tabernacle Church on Route 125 gets credit for the egg hunt. They prepared the colorful eggs and distributed them throughout the school property.  Eager children would later find the eggs and gorge on the sweets held inside.

The BRC pancake breakfast and Easter egg hunt was a success, thanks to the coordination efforts of Donna Gill, the director of the Brentwood Recreation Center.  Gill organized and found volunteers to make this celebration the best it could be.  She stated, “This event pays for itself. The egg hunt is free, while kids pay $3.00 and adults pay $5.00 for pancakes.” Any profits go towards next year’s Easter celebration. This affair doesn’t support a charitable fund.  It is simply a fun Easter get-together for the community to enjoy.