The Benson Sons of the American Legion Family Post #112 is holding its annual Easter egg hunt on Saturday, March 27 at 11 a.m. in Benson. The event is free to the public; however, donations are encouraged. All donations will benefit the American Legion Child Welfare Foundation.
The Sons, as the squadron members call it, is a national non-profit organization devoted to caring for veterans and their families. The Sons’ annual Easter egg hunt was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic.
James Keyes, post commander, said approximately 60 to 100 children have attended the event in past years.
“If 60 kids show up, that would be awesome, but we’d like to see more,” Keyes said. “We counted about 1,100 eggs, but it was such a joy doing it.”
To follow pandemic guidelines, the egg hunt will be held outside in the field next to the VFW building, and the post will not offer lunch as it has done in the past. Other activities that will still proceed include sack races, a pinata and bag toss.
According to Keyes, the Easter egg hunt is one of their largest events of the year.
“It takes us a couple weeks to set up,” Keyes said. “Between six of us, we put in about 10 hours each the day of the event, so about 60 hours worth of manpower.”
Prizes for the games include gift baskets, stuffed animals, candy and other kids toys. In the past, businesses such as Walmart, Coco Key Water Resort, Durham Western Heritage Museum and BounceU have donated day passes and prizes to this event.
“With COVID, getting out and getting donation requests has been quite difficult this year,” said Chris Casey, detachment senior vice commander. “There was a lot of questioning about if we were even going to be able to have the event.”
Patrons who cannot attend but would like to donate to The Sons can send donations to The Benson Sons of American Legion, P.O. Box 34621, Omaha, NE 68134.
