Triplets Heidi, Harper and Elsyse and along with their big brother, Charlie, enjoyed the Daystar Egg Drop. The youngsters are the children of Jeremy and Katie Sparkman. | Randy Garrison

Daystar egg drop huge success

Randy Garrison

Hartselle Enquirer

Saturday’s beautiful spring weather was sure a positive force in the large crowds that Daystar Church enjoyed at their second annual Easter Egg Drop. According to Jason Zinsmeister, church administrator for all 3 campuses of Day Star, over 1,800 people had pre-registered for the event and they were expecting another 1,000 to show up.

By 9:15 a.m. Sat. morning, each blow-up attraction had a long line of children waiting to jump, slide or crawl through one of the attractions. Others were playing corn hole and others waiting to get their faces painted in the face-painting tent.  The line was also long for balloon animals. Popcorn was popular as well as the snow cone line. At one time, more than 20 folks were lined up at each tent waiting for the refreshments.

The Easter bunny was also on site, with those young ones sitting in his lap giving parents a great photo opportunity.

The first egg hunt was held at 10:00 a.m. for ages 0-3. The area was lined up four or more deep in children and parents waiting to fill Easter baskets with the plastic eggs. Anticipation was high as the area was filled before the “go” was sounded to begin the hunt.

The highly anticipated egg drop was held first at 10:30 a.m. for children 4-6. Brooke Hudson, worship leader for Daystar Hartselle campus, and Pastor Steve Patnick,  Good Hope pastor, dropped the eggs from a hovering helicopter. Hundreds of eggs fell to the ground while hundreds of kids waited to gather the eggs when the signal was given. Several ran onto the field too soon and the helicopter had to pull away from the drop zone, after the field was cleared the chopper once again moved in and more eggs fell to the ground. This occurred two more times as different age groups were eagerly awaited the eggs being dropped to the ground. Children’s pastor Jason Saunders served as emcee and did his best to keep the drop zone clear while the helicopter hovered over dropping the eggs. The anticipation was just too much for several who kept trying to get to the eggs early.

Daystar holds the event each year as an outreach to the community.