sponsoring an Easter Egg Hunt---advice?

[spookypony]

For some reason nobody quite understands, most of the grooming supplies and headcollars at a place I ride appear to have grown legs---which is a shame, since the place invested quite a bit last year in getting new stuff. We suspect that most of it is still there somewhere, but misplaced.

I want to sponsor an Easter Egg Hunt, in which kids would be encouraged to look for the missing items, receiving a chocolate easter egg in return for each item found, The kid with the most items would also get a special prize, I think.

I can think of one major problem, that being kids finding/hoarding the items ahead of the day. This would put the younger/fairer-minded kids at a disadvantage. One way to solve this problem might be to run the Hunt over a period of weeks, where the items get handed in to the office, and the office peeps keep a tally, and eggs are distributed at the end of the period. What do you think?

 

[JenTaz]

just hunt on a set day but dont put the items out untill you're an hour from starting

 

[spookypony]

The problem is that the items are already all out there---we don't know where they all are, which is why we want to bribe the kids to go find them!

 

[s4sugar]

In this situation I wouldn't give advance notice of a treasure hunt.
Get in the choccy eggs as prizes while the supermarkets have cheap offers and put up a sign/notice that they will be prizes for a mystery game on xx day.

That way the kids know when to be on the yard but no squirrelling can occur.

 

[Kat]

Just tell them that it is an easter egg hunt and get them to turn up at the appointed time, then give them the rules that they have to find missing kit and exchange it for eggs.

Or just to improve the idea, you could make it a scavenger hunt and give points (towards eggs) for different items. So 10 points for a lost hoof pick, 5 points for a poisonous plant picked out of a field, and so on. You list only types of things that you want collecting up and/or finding with most points for the hardest things.

We used to do this when we were kids, they'd normally plant some items too just to make it fun, and there was a standard 1 point for litter and "things that shouldn't be in a pony's field". We used to hand things in to the YO who kept a tally of who had most points and at the end rosettes were handed out.

It was VERY competative, and lead to tree climbing and allsorts!

 

[Dubsie]

I agree, announce the Easter Egg Hunt in advance but don't announce what they're actually hunting for until the start day/time. Meanwhile start making a list of any missing items you can think of

 

[spookypony]

It appears the choice is made for me by circumstances: word of the plan has gotten out! So I have to run it over several weeks, this time, with points tallies being kept. But I like all your suggestions for a "scavenger hunt" type of day, and maybe that's a good one to do later in the spring, when the ragwort gets going!