An Easter egg hunt was spoiled for hundreds of children - leaving them and a good many adults angry - when Salt Lake City-County Health officials showed up Saturday morning and told volunteers the hunt was unsanctioned and unsanitary.
For the past five years, the East Millcreek Lions Club has co-sponsored an Easter egg hunt with the East Millcreek Recreation Center in Evergreen Park. Members of the Lions Club post announcements about a week in advance, said President Bill Naylor.The club boils, colors and hides about 5,500 eggs, and local merchants donate prizes, Naylor said. Volunteers started preparing for the annual hunt Friday night and were at the park before 7 a.m. secreting the eggs, he said.
At about 8:45, the community's fire truck pulled up to start the hunt with sirens and lights, he said. At the same time, a county health inspector and several deputy sheriffs approached Naylor and told him the hunt couldn't proceed.
The health official said the hunt was illegal because the group hadn't gotten a special events permit, and because the eggs were being placed on the ground, Naylor said.
"Obviously we were at fault," Naylor said. "We just didn't realize or know that (a permit) was necessary for the egg hunt. Things have gone along nicely without any permit (in the past).
"Today, they caught up with us," he added. "Simply because we didn't follow these rather stringent regulations . . . boiling the eggs at a certain temperature, making sure they're cooled, not placing them on the ground where subject to herbicides, animal waste, etc. . . . The thing that upset us was that he came up at quarter to nine. If we would have known that we (were) in violation, we would have made other arrangements." No explanation was offered as to why the event was halted at the last minute, he said.
The volunteers had to gather the eggs and destroy them, Naylor said.
"If they knew at 7 o'clock last night that we couldn't do it, why didn't they tell us?" Lions Club member Herman Prater said. "We're not out to break the law."
Prater said it was disturbing that there were four or five deputies assisting health officials.
"It was like a SWAT team coming in after us," Prater said. Lt. Dave Bishop said deputies were asked to assist because there was a crowd involved.
Efforts by the Deseret News to contact Health Department officials were unsuccessful.
Prater said the hunt wasn't a total loss for all the children - about 1,000 eggs had been held back in bags for those children who didn't find any eggs. Club members distributed those eggs and also some plastic eggs with prizes in them, he said.