'It's so exciting': Thousands take part in annual Easter egg hunt in Calgary
Calgarians are taking advantage of the weekend’s sunny weather by heading outside for some Easter weekend fun.
“We're blessed with sunshine, which always brings a little bit of hope to everybody,” said Mark Williams, the lead pastor at Beddington Pentecostal Church (BP) Church.
“We're excited to be able to (host the event) in our community and let them know that there's better days ahead, to be able to shake off some of the past and move into a bright future.”
BP Church’s annual Easter Egg Hunt saw an estimated 3,000 people on Saturday.
“It’s so exciting,” said Williams. “You never know anyone is going to show up, but our community was ready to do something, that's very obvious.”
Months of preparation goes into an event this size, from obtaining city permits, to order the candy and chocolate.
“We stuffed 35,000 eggs with chocolate, and so there's a lot of volunteers that have to come to do that,” he said. “Then there’s a couple of hundred volunteers to put it all together from just setting the field up and organizing the day.”
Williams said the annual event has pivoted in recent years due to the pandemic, but he is happy to have it come together once again.
“The last few years have been difficult for a lot of people,” he said.
Elsewhere in the city, the Calgary Zoo is hosting its annual Easter Eggstravaganza. This event has its own virtual egg hunt, lawn games and other educational activities.
It runs until April 18, and is included with park admission.
While many Albertans are celebrating outdoors, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw is reminding those who are taking their activities inside, to use caution.
“What I would recommend is that people consider who they're going to be gathering with, consider what precautions are appropriate for those individuals,” said Dr. Hinshaw. “It's critical that anyone who's feeling sick, not attend a gathering, consider the use of rapid tests and potentially having parts of gatherings outdoors, if the weather is conducive on that particular day.”
While acknowledging the importance of celebrating with friends and family, she says it is important to reduce the risk of COVID-19.
“It's clear that we have seen a rise in transmission,” she said. “We've also seen that our positivity rates have plateaued a bit over the past week. I think it's, again, the magnitude of this rise, how long it will last, those are questions we don't know the answers to yet.”
In Wednesday's update, Alberta recorded 6,181 new cases over the past seven days.
There are 1,053 Albertans in hospital, with 48 in intensive care. More than 4,100 Albertans have died with COVID-19 infections.
These numbers are current as of the end of day on April 11. The province updates the case numbers weekly every Wednesday.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'I just can't believe that it took so long': Body found in wreckage 3 months after deadly fire
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
No proof man lied to brother about number of kittens born in litter, B.C. tribunal rules
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Quebec police hand out hundreds of tickets to Hells Angels and other bikers before 'first run' meeting
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Explosion at train station leads to discovery of stolen car on Montreal's South Shore: police
Police are investigating after a BMW exploded in the St-Lambert Exo train station parking lot on Montreal's South Shore.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
There's progress reported in Gaza truce talks, but Israel downplays chances of ending war with Hamas
A delegation of the Palestinian militant group Hamas was in Cairo on Saturday as Egyptian state media reported "noticeable progress" in cease-fire talks with Israel, though an Israeli official downplayed the prospects for a full end to the war in Gaza.
Snakes almost on a plane: U.S. TSA discovers a bag with small snakes in passenger's pants
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
Russia puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on its wanted list
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
A candidate for Germany's key party was beaten up while campaigning for European elections
A candidate for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left party in next month's election for the European Parliament was beaten up and seriously injured while campaigning in an eastern city, the party said Saturday.