On Saturday about 300 children and parents attended Oberlin’s annual Spring Egg Roll, an event that has been held for over 20 years to bring people to the downtown area.

The event, organized by the Main Street Oberlin Promotions Committee and sponsored by many Oberlin businesses, groups and the College, was scheduled differently this year to encourage people to stay longer and shop. The egg hunt was pushed back to 1 p.m. so that FAVA could host an egg-dyeing session. Senior Page Neal was also in attendance, helping kids glue paper feathers on a float for this year’s Big Parade.

“Last night we hard-boiled 17 dozen eggs,” Executive Director Betsy Manderen said. “Before, people often came for the Oberlin Inn Easter breakfast, did the egg hunt, and left. The Main Street committee asked us to help out, and it’s been great. It’s a natural partnership for us.”

Many Oberlin residents have strong ties to the town’s Easter tradition.

“My brother comes back every year from Maryland for the hunt and to visit family,” Donna Baker said.

Meisha Baker Thompson remembered doing the hunt when she was a girl.

“They had real eggs back then,” Thompson said. “There were golden ones with money in them. It was probably a mess.”

The plastic eggs used in recent years are stuffed with candy by members of the Oberlin Senior Citizens group and strewn about the lawn of Tappan Square, the Oberlin Inn and FAVA so that different age groups can all participate.

Throngs of children with egg baskets lined the outskirts of Tappan Square waiting for 1 p.m., some pushing in along the foot-paths and trying to edge by Sandy Pierson of the Main Street Oberlin Promotion Committee, who stood trying to hold them back as the time grew nearer. Lauren, age six, had practiced her egg-hunting skills since Thursday.

When 1 p.m. struck, the Easter Bunny appeared and the children broke ranks in an eruption of looting. Parents followed behind their children cheering them on and shouting directions. Within minutes, Tappan Square had been picked clean of anything pastel that wasn’t nailed down and it was over. As children counted up their takes, a passerby compared the scene to “a swarm of locusts.”

After the hunt, the Easter Bunny had a few minutes for pictures before his next stop in Wellington.