Easter bunny hops around Oliver and Osoyoos

By Times Chronicle staff

A cold and windy Saturday morning was warmed by the excitement of children running frantically and hunting for eggs at the Oliver Community Park.

Over 200 children with their families attended the Oliver community Easter egg hunt, where plastic eggs were spread throughout the grass for the children to find.

The children’s task was simple: collect eggs and find a secret hidden wooden bunny for a bonus treat. All the collected eggs were exchanged for a treat bag after the hunt was done to ensure the treats were distributed equally.

The hunts were all subdivided by age, including a four and under group at 10:15 a.m., a 5-7 group at 10:30 a.m., and a 8+ group at 10:45 a.m..

The Easter Bunny was in attendance and assisted in leading the children to the eggs. The Easter bunny also took part in a dance competition with live music performed by Matt Duffus which saw some enthusiastic children and adults win stuffed animals.

With over 200 children, 140 who had pre-registered, the event was a fun success. Jan Black, the primary organizer for the event with the Oliver Parks and Recreation said: “I’m not sure what I was expecting but it was definitely more successful than that,” adding that she had stepped in to temporarily run and organize the event.

There were many volunteers for the event, mostly teenagers from the Oliver Ambassador Program. Corey-Lee Mills who is a coordinator for the ambassador program said that “they had to pre-do all of the [treat] bags for them, the bunny tails, setting it all up, hide the eggs, they had face painting, crafts stations, and we also had them give out the bags.”

She continued to praise the volunteers, saying that “they did the jobs very well and quite efficiently.”

Easter at Covert Farms 

Meanwhile, at Covert Farms they were gearing up for the children (and adults) to enjoy a fun open-truck ride touring the 650 acre farm to their blueberry fields where there was an Easter Egg hunt.

Driving in the 1952 Chevy truck really brought the people closer to the farm lifestyle. Shelly Covert, who is co-owner of the farm with her husband Gene, said that the children really enjoy the tours and she was happy because “they had not done any of these since before Covid.”

There were enough families that they had to take two truck loads of excited participants. Once the trucks arrived Shelly and Gene explained to everyone, “the kids are looking for bigger easter eggs in the foil, gummy fruit packs, and a couple of little silver eggs. Adults, you can grab one of the colored eggs, but you are also looking for the very special truffle that gets you a free bottle of wine, that’s the golden one.”

After the tour and easter egg hunt, the kids returned to fun and games on the farm, with a popular bouncy trampoline with children sprawled all over it, next to the quacking of ducks and neighing of goats and sheep.

This all happened with some of the adults enjoying wine and food to warm up.

Nostalgia

On the other side of Oliver, at Nostalgia Winery the cool day was being enjoyed in a more adult fashion.

The nostalgic excitement of hunting for chocolate and clues came rushing back to adults at Nostalgia winery on Saturday, with the addition of wine. People warmed up a cold and windy day with an adult easter egg hunt through the vineyard.

Sheila Whittaker, General Manager at Nostalgia Winery, organized their first annual adult easter egg hunt.

“I thought it would be fun. We are always looking for fun things to do around here.”

The hunt consisted of four teams of around 10 people, with each team having a fun bunny name such as the Bugs Bunnies and the Scarlett O’hara’s.

Each group had to traverse all the way around the property to eight different stops. “Some of the stations are wine tasting stations and then our team is giving challenges. Sometimes they find a basketful of eggs with prizes inside. And there are a couple photo challenges, there are trunks with props. So there are a few different things going on. Then at each point there is a clue card that will lead you to the next point,” Whittaker explained.

“It’s not a race. It’s about points, they collect points as they go along. So the different eggs will have prizes but also points. They get points for the challenges. They get points for the pictures, whoever wins the photo challenge, and when they post to social media and tag Nostalgia they get points, so once everyone comes in they will hand in their points cards.”

All points were then counted up with the grand prize being “very delicious and drinkable.”

It was colder than anticipated, but that failed to get anyones spirits down, “at least it’s not raining,” Whittaker said joyfully. “Everyone is moving around drinking wine here because it’s for adults. So we are hoping everyone can stay warm and keep their spirits high.

Gina Fernandes Harfman, Owner and Winemaker of Nostalgia Wines, was manning the roving rose golf cart, making sure no one gets stumped, keeping everyone on track and giving rosé samples if anyone was feeling a little thirsty in between their stations.

At one of the wine stations Colleen Madill, Wine Experience Associate and Cellar Hand was pouring the Boogie Woogie White, where she had a dance challenge. The teams had to perform signature dance moves such as the hand jive, twist and swim.

There was a merlot station, with a merlot related trivia quiz. There was a kerner wine station which had a “never have I ever challenge”.

“I think we will do it again, it seems like everyone is having a good time,” Whittaker concluded.

Easter Extravaganza

A large turnout for Osoyoos’ annual Easter Extravaganza braved the bitterly cold wind blowing off the lake to enjoy the festivities in Gyro Park.

“It looks good, there are a lot of people down here,” said Mayor Sue McKortoff adding that she belives it is the 30th year of the Easter event. This is only the second year it has been held at Gyro Park.

“Thank heavens we have the Rotary putting on the breakfast,” she added as the cold wind carried her words away.

“Unfortunately we can’t offer ‘Canada’s warmest welcome’,” she added.

The mayor held out praise for all the volunteers that made the event roll out smoothly.

The event featured a bicycle decorating contest that had a reord number of entries this year, along side the Easter Bonnet decorating contest, various games and of course the much anticipated Easter Egg Hunt.

Also lending a hand was long-time Osoyoos volunteer Jessie Smythe who volunteered at the annual Easter event and many other Osoyoos events for well over 25 years. Having just returned to Osoyoos she was manning one of the booths at the event.

Reflecting back over the years she recalls it being warmer. She was also impressed at the size of the crowd, especially given the fact the Market at Sonora was also on at the same time.

“There is as big a crowd at the Sonora Centre as there is here,” she said. “I wouldn’t have thought that dividing it would be good for it. Yet there is still a big crowd at both. Yay for Osoyoos!” she said.