Shauna Soltero wanted to find a way to bring joy to children and families over a difficult Easter holiday, she never thought she’d be hosting a virtual Easter egg hunt for almost 10,000 people across the nation.
“I really just want to spread love and also hope, because I feel like there’s not a lot of hope going around right now,” she said.
So, Soltero ran the idea of an Easter egg hunt at a safe difference by her son Gabriel, who liked it.
She then took to her personal Facebook page in late March asking her friends what they thought and she received more positive feedback and figured she’d need to start a Facebook group to organize the hunt in her small county in Southern California.
The rules were simple - decorate a large Easter egg however you like and place it outside your home. Children and families could then drive around the country “collecting” the eggs by snapping pictures of them.
The response was overwhelming, and quickly spread outside of California and the United States.
“It’s just blowing up and I had no idea that that would happen,” she said. “It’s really neat to see the joy that it’s bringing, people just want to be a part of something encouraging.”
By early April, she had about 500 people joining the Facebook group daily. On April 8, more than 1,000 people joined in a single day. As of Saturday morning, there are close to 9,000 people in the Facebook group with more than 1,900 eggs “hidden” in 40 states and 16 countries.
“I was jumping for joy,” Soltero said. “I’m still amazed, honestly, to have more than 1,000 members join in one day, my mind is so blown.”
People for all ages have been taking part. Soltero said she knew children would be involved but it has since expanded into local senior centers and people in their 80s and 90s creating eggs as well as some local police California Police departments decorating their own as well.
“We’ve got little babies all the way up to seniors,” she said. “Just seeing the local community come together and all ages get joy from it is pretty cool.
Soltero said people have been getting incredibly creative with their eggs. She has seen them made for not just paper and paint, but some people have been using things like large pallets and welding materials. Some are strung up and hung in trees, others are decorated as farm animals, Yoda and Pokemon. Some people even made their creations into three-foot sunnyside up eggs.
“It is unreal what people have put into these, the list goes on and on,” Soltero said. “It’s so fun to see something blowing up with all of these happy things.”
You can find more details how to participate here.