Kids, Seniors Join Search for Easter Eggs

Grandparents wearing bunny hats and wide smiles mingled with children dressed in play clothes and armed with Easter baskets at the 25th annual Easter egg hunt at the Laguna Woods Equestrian Center on Saturday morning.

“I love being here with the kids,” said Ruth Devoge, 70, a resident of Leisure World who carried a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts that she brought for her two grandchildren. “They love to visit the horses here and feed them apples and carrots.”

The morning started with a festive horse parade. Afterward, the children were herded onto the front lawn for an Easter egg hunt and pony rides around a small dirt courtyard.

Leanna Buoncristiani drove to the center from Coto de Caza because her eldest daughter, 7-year-old Alyssa, loves horses and wanted to have a pony ride.

“Jesus rising from the dead is the best part about Easter,” said Alyssa, who has clearly paid attention in her Sunday school classes. “Well, also the Easter Bunny.”

A Leisure World resident, Roy Piazza, dressed up as a white Easter bunny and charmed the youngsters, just as he has done for the past five years. The 68-year-old hopped around while handing out plastic eggs stuffed with miniature chocolate bars.

For Wilma Hart, 83, the egg hunt was the perfect excuse to get gussied up and take her 17-year-old horse, Mercedes, for a spin to entertain the kids. Wearing hot pink feathers in her hair, Hart posed for photos with her horse, who wore matching feathers around its brown ears.

“I’m down here every day,” said Hart, who grew up riding horses in Utah and now lives in Leisure World. “We used to ride horses because we couldn’t afford the cars.”

Hart, who has had a quadruple bypass and has an artificial knee, hugged the children who came over to pet Mercedes and give thanks for the nice day and for Easter.

“The older folks enjoy being with the kids,” said Debbie Lamb, recreation director of the equestrian center. “During the week, they don’t get to mix much with young people. This event brings the whole family together.”

Shortly before the Easter egg hunt, the crowd received a scare when a spooked horse in the equestrian show bucked its rider. The injured woman, identified as Donna Montgomery, is a Leisure World resident and was taken away by paramedics and treated for minor cuts and bruises, according to Lamb.