50 years of Easter memories ... a legacy
March 30, 2013
This young lad got a personal hug from the Easter Bunny Saturday morning before embarking to fill his basket during the 50th annual Bonners Ferry Lions Club Easter Egg Hunt at the Boundary County Fairgrounds. He'll remember this moment forever.
Story and photos by Mike Weland

For 50 years, the Bonners Ferry Lions Club has been giving the kids of Boundary County memories to last a lifetime, hiding eggs on the fairground lawn and tucked among the swings and slides for eager kids from toddler to ten to set off in search of.

More than a tradition. It's a legacy.

A connection between old and new, young and old. A binding tie that connects the generations with the best sort of memory ... a memory shared.

"One of my earliest memories is participating in this egg hunt in the late 60s," Wendy Foster said to the Facebook announcement we posted of the event. "I was a toddler and one of the teenage volunteers helped me by leading me around and showing me where a bunch of the hidden eggs were. I hope the little kids still have their own separate area away from the big kids!"

They do, Wendy! Toddlers who enjoyed today what you you did in the 1960s will likely be remembering, with the same hope, in 2063 ... 50 years from now.

This year, Lions Club members hid 150-dozen Easter eggs, that's 1,800 eggs, brightly colored by residents at the Boundary Community Restorium, many who have fond memories of taking their children and grandchildren to their very first, and many subsequent, Lions Club Easter Egg hunts.

It's a community tradition that ties together the ages as winter lets go and spring just begins to burst forth.

This year, the weather could hardly have been better ... bright sunshine, a morning temperature that warmed from near freezing to almost 50 degrees by the start of the hunt. Birds chirped from high in the trees, the first insects of spring flittered through the greening grass and fluttered through the air.

Another season, another year.

Another resurrection.

More memories forged on joyous young faces, led by kids we older folk once watched discover their very first Easter Egg, now starting their own families and carrying on a tradition nostalgic.
As the older generation points the way, young parents, many remembering their first Bonners Ferry Lions Club Easter Egg Hunt not that long ago, lead their children, dressed in Easter finery, toward a fond memory.
The smiles, the excitement. The joy on young faces and reflected in the faces of those who remember being led, now leading. That's Frankie, front left. Moments later, her grandpa, Brion Poston, came by, camera dangling from his hand. "I forgot how fast they are!" he said, laughing.
A treasure at hand ... and so much more than a mere colored egg. That's a memory she's picking up, and a tradition. For her, the joy of discovery. For her parents, the memory of their joy as a child finding that first beautiful Easter Egg, and now their joy at seeing their child experience that joy and excitement anew.