caption, page 1:

At the Starting Line
Baskets in hand, three girls are ready for the start of the Roseland Cottage Egg Hunt. Expanded photo array Wed. night on our FB page: Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger. Linda Lemmon photo.

captions, page 4, clockwise:
Millie Cates, 5, of Pomfret
At Roseland: One of the Peeps diorama contest winners, "Peeps with the Creeps."
Roseland: Egg-hunt mania.
(baby) At the Putnam Elks egg hunt.
Right: In Pomfret "Not sure about this bunny, Mom."
Mom Kelly Alves with Hudson Smith, left, and Harper Smith of Woodstock.
The Pomfret Recreation Department team with the Easter Bunny. (Courtesy photo)
(sunglasses): From left: Payton Pion, 1 1/2, Corey Pion and Colyn Petre-Pion of Pomfret Center.
(center): The Howell family with the Easter Bunny at the Putnam Elks Lodge 574.

Whew, that Easter Bunny was tired
 
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
NE CT — By the time the weekend was over, the Easter Bunny must have been exhausted. Lots of kids — and lots of traditions.
“Like I always say: ‘It starts at 1 and it’s over at 1:03’,” said Laurie Masciando, site manager of Historic New England’s Roseland Cottage in Woodstock. The running children is a running joke noted each year by Masciando.
March 30 she estimated there were 300 kids taking part in the egg hunt. There was also the traditional Peeps diorama contest and crafts and the Easter Bunny. She thought there were probably fewer kids this year than last year.
Most egg hunts have a separate area for the little ones — to keep them from getting bulldozed by the eager older kids. The separate area assures that the little ones get to find some eggs.
Once again, she said, the Cottage’s event had help from the Woodstock Academy Honor Society (19 students helped) and from Woodstock Covenant Church which takes care of the big beautiful eggs and the crafts tables.
Masciando estimated Roseland has done this event “well past 25 years. We love to do these community events.”  
She added that some of the honor society helpers remember hunting for eggs at Roseland when they were young.
Woodstock Recreation Director Erin Lucas said this is the seventh year for the Peeps diorama contest. There were 10 this year and each artist got a prize.
Pomfret’s Egg Hunt
The Easter Bunny was busy in Pomfret, too.
The Pomfret Recreation Department had an excellent year this year with 150 kids taking part. “I think this is the best year ever,” said newly appointed department Director Carrie Wolfe. “Maybe it’s because it’s the day before Easter” and maybe everyone needed to get out following days of dreary rain.
Wolfe said Pomfret has been having an Easter Egg Hunt since before 1981. It started out as hiding hard-boiled eggs. In about 1990 it switched over to candy-filled eggs.
Those who found silver eggs got a prize basket.
Winners included:
Ages 1-3: Keoni Olszta and Summer Altiery
Ages 4-5: Emmett Poudrette and Millie Cates
Ages 6-7: Matthew Dyer and Asher Lee
Ages 8-10: Kingston Soriero and Aaliyah Winsey
Putnam Lodge of Elks 574
The Easter Bunny greeted eager kids. The numbers were down a bit from last year. About 30 kids raced to get plastic eggs stuffed with candy. The little kids got their own area. The larger eggs were prize winners. Elks officials estimated they have been putting on the egg hunt for about 17 years.
In addition to greeting the kids, the Easter Bunny posed for photos, too.