Thousands gather for Elgin egg drop - from a helicopter
A helicopter dropped thousands of plastic eggs Saturday onto the lawn of New Life Covenant Church in Elgin as a sea of families watched from below.
Kids of all ages charged the grassy field to fill their baskets and bags with the 6,000 colorful, candy-filled eggs that had been individually stuffed by members of the church and community, Pastor Daniel Flores said.
But that volume, he said, wasn't nearly enough to accommodate the 3,000 people who showed up from across the suburbs for the inaugural Easter Festival and Egg Hunt hosted by the church at 2250 W. Highland Ave.
"We're already planning on using more community resources and making this more of a community event next year," Flores said, promising a larger open space with 30,000 eggs or more. "(The event) really created a lot of excitement."
In addition to the egg drop, the festival offered carnival games, train rides, a petting zoo and pony rides.
With a crowd much larger than expected, Flores said, the event had its hiccups. A field already containing 4,000 eggs was sectioned off, waiting for the helicopter to drop the remaining 2,000. But large crowds broke through the yellow caution tape early and snatched up the eggs already on the field.
Kids swarmed again when a drone carrying a small basket of eggs hovered over the field.
Still, the event seemed perfect for 4-year-old Broderick Burke of Elgin, who had attended egg hunts in the past but never one involving a helicopter.
"He's big into aerial stuff," said his mother, Charlee Burke. "We thought it'd be something fun to do this time of year."
Though unable to gather any eggs, Justin and Michele Bickus said their 1-year-old son Theo, who was sitting on his dad's shoulders, was fascinated by the experience.
Giving residents a unique experience was exactly what Flores had hoped to accomplish.
"We thought it'd be cool to bring something different to the Elgin community, especially for the kids," he said. "We're bringing the whole family together."