Two thousand sixteen tiny, bright spots of color decorate the Quad's green grass. The shining sun in a clear, blue sky casts shadows of tall, leafless trees onto the ground. Children clutch colorful woven baskets and plastic grocery bags that blow in the wind. They line up on the sidewalks ready to run; they are anxiously waiting for the Easter Bunny to announce the start of the egg hunt.
"Ready...set...go," sophomore Bill Merkel, dressed as the Easter Bunny, shouts.
The children take off like small rockets.
Sunday's egg hunt was an annual event organized by the Ball State University Program Board for at least six years, UPB president Noah Meadors, a senior, said. All children and families of faculty and students are invited, Meadors said, but only kids are allowed to hunt for eggs.
"It's a lovely day, and I think it's really wonderful that they're doing this for the kids of the staff," Carl Schafer, Ball State Museum of Art associate director, said.
Schafer and his wife, Barbara, brought their children, George and Hannah, to the egg hunt.
"I like [Easter] because you can get candy," six-year-old George said.
Going into the egg hunt, George said his strategy was just to run and grab as many eggs as possible.
In the initial rush to the plastic eggs, some children fell but they were back on their feet in seconds.
Seven-year-old Jacob Holtzman hurried to a large cluster of eggs by a nearby tree following a tip from his dad, academic adviser Mark Holtzman.
While the other children scrambled to fill their baskets with eggs, 14-month-old Theo Tschopp was content to waddle around carrying one purple and one orange egg in either hand. His mother, Molly Tschopp, a professor in the Counseling Center, stayed close behind him.
"That's all he wanted," Molly Tschopp said of her son's two eggs.
The children were divided into two groups, based on age, to make the egg hunt fair. Children five years old and younger were in one group and childeren six to ten years old were in the other, Meadors said.
After the egg hunt, which lasted less than two minutes, Jacob and Mark Holtzman made their way over to Jacob's mother, assistant professor of sociology Mellissa Holtzman and younger brother, two-year-old Jason. Jacob grabbed a handful of his own eggs and placed them into an enthusiastic Jason's less-full basket.
Anna Groover, 9 years old, said the egg hunt was fun. Her strategy was to run to the area farthest away from the starting line because most people grab the front eggs first, she said. Anna collected more than 20 eggs filled with candy, including chocolate bunnies and Starbursts. She is the daughter of assistant professor of anthropology Mark Groover.
Meadors said he was very pleased with the turnout this year, which was probably more than 200 people. Free face painting and $1 photos with the Easter Bunny were also available, he said.
Freshman Sarah Wiley painted children at the face-painting table in the middle of the Quad. She said bunny faces were the most popular request.
"They want to look just like the Easter Bunny," Wiley said.
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