The chase was on, come nightfall in downtown Harlem, Tuesday March 28, as the Laurel and Hardy Museum of Harlem and the Harlem Women’s Club hosted the first Glow-in-the-Dark Egg Hunt.
The event saw a healthy turnout of families with excited young egg hunters—approximately 300, by the Women’s Club’s estimation—coming out with baskets in tow to collect glowing eggs.
“A lot more than we expected,” said Amanda Ham, branch manager at the Harlem Library, and a member of the Harlem Women’s Club. “We’re such a small town, and with it being a school night, we thought we’ll have maybe 100 kids for the first time.”
One of downtown Harlem’s many community events throughout the year, alongside its renowned Oliver Hardy Festival, is its Christmas in Downtown Harlem Festival, which starts with a holiday market and culminates in a nighttime parade and a Christmas tree lighting.
“We were thinking of the Twilight Parade that we do for the Christmas holiday,” said museum and visitor center director Meghan Foster, who coordinated the family-friendly Easter festivities. “You get to see all the parade lights at night, so that’s where the idea came from.”
In that same spirit, the Visitors’ Center coordinated an egg hunt, in which participating kids were split into three age groups: zero to three-year-olds, four to six-year-olds and seven to 12-year-olds.
The event was scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m., with librarians, museum staff and members of the Harlem Women’s Club overseeing the activities—accompanying the Easter Bunny, of course, who strolled about entertaining the children and taking pictures.
“Hopefully by the time we have the kids split up, it’ll get dark enough where we can actually do the hunt,” said Foster on how the evening had been originally planned.
Eager families, however, had already arrived by 6:30 p.m. By 7:01 p.m., the hunt was on, and by 7:30 p.m.—before dark—most or all of the some 2,000 eggs hidden had been collected and brought to a table set by the Women’s Club; some filled with candy or trinkets, and some exchanged for more treats.
“It was a shock, but it was really good for us,” said Ham. “There was such a big turnout, there was no we could wait, unfortunately. But we learned for next year.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
