Two Easter Egg hunts planned for LIC Saturday, organizers have 20,000 Easter Eggs

April 14, 2017 By Hannah Wulkan

The Easter Bunny is coming to Long Island City tomorrow.

In an annual tradition, a local community group will host two Easter egg hunts for local kids tomorrow at Gantry Plaza State Park and at Queensbridge Park, inviting families out to not only hunt for eggs, but to enjoy free games, face painting and entertainment.

“It’s really our gift to the community, and a great way to bring everyone together to celebrate springtime and the Easter season,” said organizer Seth Bazacas, the director of the new community center Renew Queens, which is hosting the event.

Over the course of the day, the event will serve about 1,000 to 1,500 kids between the ages of 2 and 10, said Bazacas, adding that the Community Center has stuffed about 20,000 Easter eggs for kids to hunt throughout the day.

The free event will run from 10 a.m. to noon at Gantry Park and from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Queensbridge Park, and will have live music and games in addition to the Easter Egg Hunt, Bazacas said. He added that the event is run completely by about 100 volunteers that will ensure everything runs smoothly throughout the day.

This is the eighth year the hunt has been held in Gantry Park and the fourth year in Queensbridge Park, but this year for the first time it will be run by the new LIC community center that opened early this year, Renew Queens.

“Renew is brand new, and this is the first big event we will be hosting so we are very excited,” Bazacas said, adding that he hopes to host many more community events in the future.

The event is funded through local businesses and donations to Renew Queens, and Bazacas said that he is always looking to get more community members involved. “We are always looking for ongoing sponsorship and partnership to make more events like this a reality,” he said. “The future and vision for Renew Queens is primarily based on community partnership to help expand programming moving forward.”