We would like to thank everyone that came out to the Silver Spring Easter Egg Hunt, from near and far. Approximately 600 people arrived at the historic B&O Railroad Station–more than we had anticipated– and 32 local businesses participated. We appreciate everyone’s participation, promotion, support, and feedback. This would not have come together without the support of the community.
Our initial impressions of the event were that it was positive overall. People seemed to have a good time, a lot of people appreciated the artists’ art, participants came from as far as Virginia to participate, and business owners said they had a lot of traffic come through their establishments. A lot of people seemed to have fun, including us.
But that’s not to say that we didn’t make a few mistakes. We originally intended the Easter egg hunt to be an event for adults. We wanted to combine artists, businesses and residents in order to bring the three closer together and an Easter egg hunt seemed like a great way to do that. The glaring mistake that we made with this was that when anyone thinks of an Easter egg hunt, they think of an event for kids. Once we started marketing the event, many people expressed their interest in having their children involved, and since our marketing and communication was off, we were confusing people. Since we had already started getting the word out, rather than try to adjust the messaging, we attempted to incorporate a child-oriented aspect into the event. Thus, we added the plastic eggs with candy. The business owners agreed to donate the gift cards, so it fell on us to finance the eggs and candy. We wanted to keep this a free event and due to our limited finances, we could only provide a limited supply of eggs and candy.
Another problem that arose from this format was that we heard that some adults ended up competing with children. Frankly, we heard some pretty disappointing things regarding this issue, which really put a damper on the day.
At the beginning of the event, one person told us that their child couldn’t sleep because they were so excited about the Easter egg hunt. By the end, after having several parents express their disappointment about the event, that enthusiasm had certainly been diminished.
We apologize for any miscommunication, incorrectly set expectations, or any unpleasant and disappointing experiences for any children or parents. We don’t have any excuses, but we can learn from this and make next year’s event better.
We would like our Easter egg hunt to be a Silver Spring tradition and we hope to host this event again next year. Next year, we are considering having a separate “kids” course and “adult” course. The kids course will be contained in one location with a larger supply of Easter eggs. We will maintain the city-wide aspect for the “adult” course and any families that prefer that format.
Throwing the event again, however, is based upon a demand for it. Whether you liked the event or not, we would like to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected] with feedback. You are also encouraged to fill out our survey.
We appreciate you taking the time to read this, as well as your participation and understanding.
4 COMMENTS
I appreciate this letter. It certainly explains the low supply of eggs for the kids to collect. I hope next year goes better as this would be a nice tradition for both me and my children.
Thanks so much for participating Elyse. We’d love for this to be a Silver Spring tradition, as well, and if we can make it happen next year, we hope to see you there.
I already submitted a comment form, but wanted to say I very much appreciate the effort Pete and his gf put into the egg hunt. I agree that there’s room for improvement, but a lot of that had to do with the demand being so high. Kudos on a great idea and media campaign getting so many people out and exploring DTSS. Personally, I finally made it into Pennyworth and The Record Exchange for the first time (even though I’ve lived here for going on a decade) and bought a few things around town, too. Really hope the event is around for years to come!
Bob, I can’t say how much we appreciate your remarks. Really.