LifeSpring Community Church heralded the coming of Easter with its fifth annual egg drop at South Macon Elementary School on Saturday, dropping more than 10,000 Easter eggs for a crowd of children as young as two up to pre-teens. Pastor Bryon Lamb said the event is put on each year to help give families a free activity to celebrate Easter.
The gathering began at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 12, with bouncy houses, obstacle courses, free food, face painting and balloon animals in the recess area of the elementary school. Lamb said roughly 800 people attended the event including around 650 children, the most organizers have seen.
As 1 p.m. approached, hundreds of children found their way to the field and recess area outside, playing on playground equipment and in bouncy houses, getting their faces painted and receiving balloon animals.
The helicopter, hired by LifeSpring from Sevier County Chopper Choppers, was travelling through high wind conditions from Sevierville, Tennessee, and was therefore delayed. While everyone awaited its arrival, event organizers collaborated to make sure children and parents understood the procedures and were able to clear the helicopter’s flight path. Organizers took the delay as an opportunity to discuss the Easter story and invite attendees to church and bible study.
Upon arriving at the field, the children were given color-coded wristbands to signify their age groups, so they could be sorted into sections to help ensure that all children would have the opportunity to get some eggs. They awaited the sounds of the chopper, organized into four age groups on either side of the field.
The chopper eventually arrived around 1:30 p.m., collected some eggs from the loading point nearby and made two passes over the field, dropping 5,000 eggs in two drops over the field. Some children broke from the ranks to try and get an early shot at the eggs, but once they were corralled back into line, the hunt officially began.
The church had filled 6,000 eggs on its own and purchased another 4,000 ready-made. After the drops, those children who were unable to obtain any eggs were invited to be given some eggs from volunteers, and a drawing was held to gift more than 100 balls or other outdoor equipment to children to help get them outdoors as the weather warms up. Volunteers started cleanup at 2 p.m.
Lamb said there had been a time where he was opposed to the church hosting egg hunts, describing himself as legalistic in his views toward the activity. However, Lamb said he has since become more open to the idea. After hearing about a similar egg drop from a friend in Eugene, Oregon, Lamb decided it would be a good thing to do in Franklin.
“We get to have a big event with 40-50 volunteers,” Lamb said, “and we get to have free entertainment for a day … we wanted to make sure that everyone could come.”
Lamb added that it was important to LifeSpring that the event be both free of charge, open and inclusive of all who wanted to come, and that it not serve as an excuse to fundraise, as some other churches’ events often become. He said that families have been struggling lately, and if — by saving and budgeting — the church can put on a free Easter celebration to help them out, then it is happy to do so.
The 2024 egg drop underperformed, Lamb said, due to high winds that forced the helicopter to cancel, but otherwise the event has steadily grown, bringing in more and more kids to participate. Volunteers at the event came from LifeSpring and from the Hispanic Casa Del Alfarero Nazarine Church, with a handful of other volunteers dropping by from other organizations. Lamb said he was happy to have the Nazarine church involved, as they have the ability to reach out to nearby Hispanic communities in a way that LifeSpring cannot.
“We’re just showing the love of Jesus,” Lamb said, “for everyone.”