'It's so exciting': Thousands take part in annual Easter egg hunt in Calgary

Calgarians enjoying Easter events Calgary families had some sunshine to enjoy on Saturday as they participated in some Easter activities. Virginia Wright reports.

Calgarians are taking advantage of the weekend’s sunny weather by heading outside for some Easter weekend fun.

“We're blessed with sunshine, which always brings a little bit of hope to everybody,” said Mark Williams, the lead pastor at Beddington Pentecostal Church (BP) Church.

“We're excited to be able to (host the event) in our community and let them know that there's better days ahead, to be able to shake off some of the past and move into a bright future.”

BP Church’s annual Easter Egg Hunt saw an estimated 3,000 people on Saturday.

“It’s so exciting,” said Williams. “You never know anyone is going to show up, but our community was ready to do something, that's very obvious.”

Months of preparation goes into an event this size, from obtaining city permits, to order the candy and chocolate.

“We stuffed 35,000 eggs with chocolate, and so there's a lot of volunteers that have to come to do that,” he said. “Then there’s a couple of hundred volunteers to put it all together from just setting the field up and organizing the day.”

Williams said the annual event has pivoted in recent years due to the pandemic, but he is happy to have it come together once again.

“The last few years have been difficult for a lot of people,” he said.

Elsewhere in the city, the Calgary Zoo is hosting its annual Easter Eggstravaganza. This event has its own virtual egg hunt, lawn games and other educational activities.

It runs until April 18, and is included with park admission.

While many Albertans are celebrating outdoors, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw is reminding those who are taking their activities inside, to use caution.

“What I would recommend is that people consider who they're going to be gathering with, consider what precautions are appropriate for those individuals,” said Dr. Hinshaw. “It's critical that anyone who's feeling sick, not attend a gathering, consider the use of rapid tests and potentially having parts of gatherings outdoors, if the weather is conducive on that particular day.”

While acknowledging the importance of celebrating with friends and family, she says it is important to reduce the risk of COVID-19.

“It's clear that we have seen a rise in transmission,” she said. “We've also seen that our positivity rates have plateaued a bit over the past week. I think it's, again, the magnitude of this rise, how long it will last, those are questions we don't know the answers to yet.”

In Wednesday's update, Alberta recorded 6,181 new cases over the past seven days.

There are 1,053 Albertans in hospital, with 48 in intensive care. More than 4,100 Albertans have died with COVID-19 infections.

These numbers are current as of the end of day on April 11. The province updates the case numbers weekly every Wednesday.