Egg Scramble

It was a day for Easter bunny believers and chocoholics.

From Santa Paula to Simi Valley, thousands of squealing children clutching Easter baskets, trailed by camera-toting parents under picture-perfect skies, scrambled to join in Easter egg hunts Saturday.

At Simi Valley’s Rancho Simi Park, about 600 children charged en masse across a roped-off lawn to gather tickets that could be redeemed for prizes, and to hunt the scattered contents of 24 industrial-size boxes of jelly beans, chocolate eggs and candy bars.

“Mom, you find the tickets; I’ll find the eggs,” 5-year-old Cory Lindley instructed mother Jodi Laudone, 31, as she struggled to keep pace.

In minutes, the youngsters had plucked the park clean, but a determined Cory continued searching. Awake since 5:30 a.m. in anticipation of his first Easter egg hunt, he was unwilling to allow any sweet treats escape his grasp.

“What does chocolate do to you?” Laudone asked.

“Makes me hyper,” Cory said as his mother rolled her eyes at the thought that her son could generate even more energy.

If some parents found the event a bit of an endurance contest, so did those unfortunate folks who donned furry bunny suits to pose for pictures with sometimes chocolate-covered children in the unseasonable heat.

“He’s dying in there,” said laughing photographer Heidi Kewish of fellow employee Jason Shaw, 18, as workers from a local photo shop took free pictures and an ever-growing line of children awaited their turns. “We just told him he had to do it. He’s the new kid” at work.

The bunny, his pink ears wilting, could emit only a muffled groan.

A few miles down the road in Moorpark, Kiwanis Club volunteers spread candy, along with 4,000 plastic eggs that could be redeemed for prizes, at Arroyo Vista Community Park.

There, organizers conducted five egg hunts for about 800 children in various age categories.

“Every year it gets bigger,” said volunteer Jim Stueck.

Stueck had the 9- to 12-year-olds count to three before they stampeded across the field--and he vainly attempted to get out of the way.

“That’s what I call a thundering herd,” he said.

“Go, Brendan, go,” said Carrie Keeling as she urged on her 3 1/2-year-old, who valiantly went head to head with the older kids in the competitive hunt.

Left eggless, blond-haired Brendan promptly burst into tears. He remained inconsolable, even when his mother and a volunteer produced several pieces of candy.

“Sorta exciting and a little hard,” was how his older sister, 10-year-old Whitnie, described the experience. “They trample you--I feel bad for the adults.”

Three children with disabilities participated in a gentler mini-egg hunt of their own.

Chad Hildebrand, 5, of Simi Valley spent most of the morning hiding under a table, but ventured out after most of the other children had left. The youngster has Tourette’s syndrome, which in his case provokes a fear of crowds and unpredictable environments, said his mother, Jolie Hildebrand, 31. He has an aversion to being touched or spoken to, she said.

“I didn’t want him to talk because then I wouldn’t know who he is,” Chad said of the Easter bunny, a.k.a. Kiwanis member Dave Stafford.

Held by his mother, Chad smiled as he cautiously stroked Stafford’s bunny suit and accepted a proffered rabbit toy.

“The rabbit is really a good thing because it doesn’t talk and it’s tactile, it feels soft . . . so Chad feels comfortable, he’s in control of his environment,” she said. “On his level, he was sure it was the real Easter bunny. He was a believer.”