GVH plans Easter egg hunt for March 28

The first Gunnison Valley Health Easter egg hunt is planned for 10 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, March 28 at the GVH north entrance lawn.

The hunt itself starts at 10:30 a.m. sharp, and more than 11,000 eggs are going to be up for grabs. 

GVH also has snacks and activities planned as part of the event.  

This is the first time GVH has held an egg hunt.

“For this first year, we ordered about 10,000 pre-stuffed eggs and will have an egg-citing egg stuffing party with various members of the GVH team helping prepare another thousand-plus eggs, including our prized golden eggs and giant eggs, the day before,” said Erica Rasmussen, GVH’s director of marketing and communications. “This event is largely supported by the marketing and family medicine teams coming together to help make a lot of kids' days, along with team members from other departments stepping in to help support all the fun.”

There will be separate sections for children based on age groups, including a special spot for the very youngest among the hunters. 

“We're having a baby egg hunt with baby-friendly eggs,” Rasmussen said. “GVH serves our community starting at birth, and we'd love to welcome those babies back.”

GVH will be handing out reusable bags at the hunt, so there is no need to come with baskets.

Among the other activities at the hunt will be snacks, crafts, games, music and the GVH lab team, along with providers on site, will aim to help increase awareness about the new GVH community lab testing programming.

There will also be photos with the Easter bunny from 10 to 10:30 a.m. and 10:45 to 11:30 a.m.

The success of last year’s GVH’s 10th annual Pumpkin Patch prompted GVH to consider a spring event.

“(Last year’s pumpkin patch) was our biggest ever with over 550 pumpkins,” Rasumssen said. “I was amazed at how many people came out, how wonderful it was to see our community having so much fun on the hospital's front lawn. I knew we needed to do more events like this.

“We're really lucky to have a lot of GVH team members who love supporting events like this. As we picked up the Pumpkin Patch, I asked a couple of our family medicine team members, ‘How do you feel about an egg hunt next spring?’ It was an overwhelming “Yes.”

 The plan is to continue the event into the future.

“We have egg recycling bins to collect eggs and re-stuff next spring,” Rasmussen said. “We recently launched a marketing internship program, in which our intern is an integral part of the event planning , preparation and execution. Next year, the intern will help organize stuffing parties with the recycled eggs, along with volunteer support.”

Spring into Wellness

GVH also has an event planned for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 2. The event is a new community wellness fair, showcasing GVH providers and programs, community wellness partners, workshops, tours and testing, with food, fun, music and activities for children.

Chad Richardson can be reached at crichardson@orourkemediagroup.com.