PHA, IFC host easter egg hunt
Inclement weather moved the event inside the student center.
Published March 25, 2010
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Jack Warner, 2, reaches around a corner to grab an egg during the Interfraternity Council- and Panhellenic Association-sponsored Easter egg hunt Thursday at the New Student Center. Warner filled up two University Bookstore bags full of eggs.
The student center was filled with approximately 700 brightly colored plastic eggs and 50 smiling children Thursday afternoon during the Interfraternity Council- and Panhellenic Association-sponsored Easter egg hunt.
“This is our first Easter egg hunt,” PHA Programming Vice President Michelle Parsons said. “We hope to make it more of an annual thing.”
Parsons said IFC and PHA have been planning the event for about a month and half to two months.
Others involved in the preparations were IFC Recruitment Vice President Ryan O’Connell and PHA spokeswoman Michelle Hanko.
“The purpose of this event was to give back to the children of Columbia by putting on a simple Easter egg hunt to show support for the great city of Columbia,” O’Connell said in an e-mail.
The hunt was originally scheduled to take place on Tiger Plaza but was moved to the student center due to rain earlier in the day.
Parsons said the rain caught them off guard and they had not planned for inclement weather.
To publicize the event, Parsons said they ran ads in the Columbia Daily Tribune and MU Info, as well as distributed fliers to elementary schools and around campus.
“The goal was to invite a bunch of programs in the Columbia area such as the Boys & Girls Club and El Centro,” Parsons said. “We even contacted Girls Town.”
Members of both the PHA and IFC executive boards were present to help coordinate the event.
Former IFC President Danny Jonas was on hand to blow bubbles for the children attending, and Parsons was dressed up in an Easter Bunny suit.
Shannon Breske, interim director of undergraduate programs, brought her 9-month-old daughter Madison to the hunt.
“It’s more for the parents at this age,” Breske said about the hunt. “She doesn’t really get it.”
IFC adviser Julie Drury brought her 1-year-old son Ben and said he was having a good time watching everyone run around.
“I think it was simple to plan with a huge outcome,” Drury said about the hunt. “It’s a great community event.”