Lion’s Club Sponsors Mesquite Egg Hunt

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The sidewalk along the edge of Marilyn Redd Park in Mesquite was packed with children and their parents on Saturday morning, April 16. All the attention was on a field full of colorful plastic eggs there for the taking. It was the annual Mesquite Easter egg hunt sponsored by the Aloha Lions Club in Las Vegas and the Summerlin Lions Club.

Summerlin club member Diane Wild, who was the Chair for this years egg hunt, said that she, a crew of about 8 Lions Club members from Las Vegas and a couple of local volunteers had been at the park since 6:30 that morning getting things ready. They had placed 5,000 plastic eggs filled with surprises all around on the lawn of the park. These were equally distributed in clearly marked areas for five different age groups of children.

“I don’t usually stress too much about things,” Wild said. “But this one has kept me really busy.”
Wild explained that this egg hunt has been going on for around 15 years now. In the early years of that timeframe, it was sponsored by the Mesquite Lions Club. But about a decade ago, the local club “aged out,” Wild said.

“The few remaining members had gotten to an age where they just couldn’t function in the club anymore,” Wild said. “And a couple other of the members moved to Summerlin at around that time and joined our club. So we decided to pick this up and run with it. We have been doing it ever since.”

Summerlin Lions Club member Benjamin Pike, who works as a Nursing Instructor at CSN in Las Vegas and as a nurse at UMC, said that he had come the night before and stayed at an RV park in Mesquite. That way he could be at the park bright and early that morning to help.
“It has been a fun experience and I’m glad to be here and to be a part of it,” he said.

As the designated start time of 9 am approached, the kids spread out along the sidewalk became restless. Finally, a countdown took place and they were off all at once.

The work of gathering eggs was a swift one. Most age groups had cleared their entire area of eggs within a minute. Then they had time to look over their take and even get in some time on the playground with new friends.

In each age group area there were two golden eggs hidden away which could be cashed in for special toy prizes.

Local mom Tiffany Haskell had brought little Clara, 2, to hunt for eggs. When the dust had settled, Clara had managed to collect a grand total of four eggs in her basket.
“It was not a huge take this year, but she doesn’t really care,” Tiffany said of Clara. “She is more happy now over there playing on the playground.”

Tiffany expressed appreciation to the Lions Club volunteers for putting on the event. “We talked to one of the volunteers and most of them are in their 70s,” she said. “It is pretty amazing that they put an Easter egg hunt together for the kiddos here. We are very grateful to them for doing that.”

Jacque Delgadillo brought her two-year-old son Zane to the event. Zane found three eggs. But he didn’t waste time playing in the park afterwards. Instead, he dug into his bucket right away and started cracking open the eggs to see what was inside.
“It all went by pretty fast,” said Jacque. “But he is happy with his candy.”

Incoming Lions Club District Governor, Kimo Harward was in attendance helping at the egg hunt. He said that the Aloha Lions Club of Las Vegas, of which he is a member, is sponsoring a new Mesquite chapter of the Lions. “We would really like to see the club functioning here again,” he said. “So we are looking for people who want to help make their community a better place.”

Harward said that the Lions Club is an international organization with 1.4 million members in over 200 countries. The Club focuses on a number of international initiatives including environmental issues, battling childhood cancers, providing eye screenings for poor children and various disaster relief projects.

“We put together a $100,000 grant for relief in the Ukraine within the first four days of the invasion,” Harward said. “While governments around the world were strategizing, we had Lions Club members on the ground in the Ukraine, taking care of business.”

In addition, Lions Club chapters are free to take on whatever local service initiatives are most needed in the community, Harward said. “We are interested in people with leadership skills, organizational skills and people with the hearts of Lions,” he added.

“Today’s event is a good example of what we do in the Lions Club,” Harward concluded. “It is just a lot of fun, and doing good in the community.”

For more information about this local effort, or to find out how to join the new Lions Club chapter, contact Kimo Harward at kimo.alohalion@gmail.com.