Great Egg-scape offers prizes, scripture (Photo by John Schreiber, The Daily Campus)
As the sun went down and the weather grew cold, Dallas Hall’s lawn was being sprinkled with brightly colored eggs. The Vine Baptist Student Ministry hosted their second annual Great Egg-scape Tuesday night despite the not so Spring like weather.
SMU students, along with faculty members and their children, lined up in front of the quad ready to hunt for some Easter eggs. All The Vine members were encouraging fellow students to participate in the Easter egg hunt assuring that this was not just for kids. Amanda Walmsley, The Vine President, said this event is held for students “to become more aware of the ministry of the Vine, and also to give the members an opportunity to serve their community in a really fun way.”
All participants in the egg hunt were asked to fill out information cards and received wrist bands to assure only those registered would be eligible for the prizes. Prizes were hidden in the eggs and included anything from an Ipod Shuffle to food gift cards to Easter candy and popular sayings. Kids were egg hunting in a different area than the SMU students and had separate prizes. “For the kids 12 and under we have items such as stuffed animals, candy and food gift cards,” said Donna Phillips a sophomore Vine member who is on Leadership.
The night before the event, Vine members meet in a large group and stuff the eggs with all the prizes. “We stuffed over 900 eggs last night!” noted Walmsley. While everyone waited for the event to start, hot dogs and drinks were being served thanks to donations from The Vine and surrounding churches. “Highland Baptist Church donated money to the Vine for our larger prizes, like the Shuffle, and the food came out of our own budget,” Phillips said.
Members of The Vine feel that more people were in attendance this year due to the fact they advertised more. “We had a banner in the commons area in Hughes-Trigg and flyers in the dorms to help advertise our program this year,” said Phillips. However, last year’s turn out was a great surprise to The Vine members despite lack of publicity. “Our plans are to keep this event on campus for as long as it appeals to the SMU community,” said Walmsley.
More than just SMU students had fun participating in this event. Sisters Karalee and Bailey Goodson had a lot of fun hunting for eggs and winning prizes. Ten-year-old Karalee said, “I won twice! I got free queso and a Roly Poly gift card!” Her 7-year old sister Bailey said, “I ran and picked up the eggs. I think I got at least 20 of them, and inside were things like candy and other stuff.” SMU sophomore Stephen Alexander said, “It was a good night. I won lots of free queso from On the Border and Roly Poly gift card. I was going to study tonight, but why not go Easter egg hunting instead?”
