City: New Easter celebration healthier

Santa Fe’s Easter egg hunt, cancelled two years ago on its 25th anniversary, isn’t coming back. The funding that went for candy, plastic eggs and other egg-hunt costs has been used healthier activities like hiking, golf and tennis, city officials say. (Journal file)

Two years after cancelling Santa Fe city government’s annual Easter egg hunt, city officials have no immediate plans to bring back the once-popular event.

Instead, money previously spent on the hunt and its related Easter celebration has been diverted to “healthier,” outdoor-oriented activities such as youth tennis and golf programs, movies in the park and hiking classes.

“The outdoor recreation component is a lot more beneficial in the long run, trying to get kids involved … just being outdoors and staying in motion,” city Public Works Director Ike Pino said. “We think the kids moving and eating better can only result in a better lifestyle form.”

Pino, who oversees Santa Fe’s Recreation Division, said the city was spending thousands of dollars on an Easter egg hunt that lasted mere minutes.

“It just didn’t make sense,” he said.

“It evolved into just laying out eggs and candy and prizes, and everybody just ran after them,” Pino said. “I’m not exaggerating at all when I say it’s over in three or four minutes.”

In addition to the hunt, the city’s Easter celebration included visits from the Easter Bunny, balloon and prize giveaways, face painting and jump tents.

The event, which was free to the public, attracted crowds of more than 1,000 children, according to Journal reports. City officials pegged the number at closer to 300 or 400.

The event cost around $18,000 to $20,000 a year to put on, according to city officials.

In 2011, Santa Fe officials announced, on the eve of the Easter egg hunt’s 25th anniversary, that the event was being cancelled “to re-focus priorities toward family-friendly healthy lifestyle initiatives that are affordable for all Santa Feans.”

Officials said at the time that the Easter celebration might be brought back, albeit in a modified, healthier way.

That hasn’t happened. Santa Fe Recreation Facility Manager Liza Suzanne said officials decided there are plenty of other Easter events around the city that people can participate in.

“I’m Jewish, and so I think it’s nice that the city is looking to do stuff that is more inclusive and health-oriented,” she said.

Suzanne added that all those plastic eggs and toys that “last for half and hour and then it’s done” aren’t good for the environment.

Pino said that the city got a few calls from questioning parents the first year the event was cancelled. However, there have been no recent complaints, he said.

During the 2011-2012 fiscal year, money was funneled from the Easter celebration to various items. They included: $4,735 for the city’s “Movies in the Park” summer program; $4,317 for recreation equipment, including yoga mats, first aid supplies, backpacks and outdoor storage trunks; $3,160 for hiking and outdoor activity instructors; $1,860 on a youth golf summer program; $1,635 on youth summer camp field trips to places such as Bandelier National Monument and Albuquerque museums; $1,200 on a still-unfinished south Santa Fe nature map made with the Audubon Society; $1,200 to sponsor a “Bike Jam” event; $966 for a Kids’s Triathlon event; $865 on tennis equipment for a youth summer program; and $941 on an Earth Day event.

City Recreation Division officials said they couldn’t immediately provide information on how the city spent diverted Easter celebration money prior to or after the 2011-2012 fiscal year. But the general concept of how the money was, and will be, spent is the same, officials said.