You can read part 1 here.
As I said in the earlier post, at 10:45 we opened the bridge that led to the field where we were doing the drop. At this point people were getting restless but still being very cool. There was a buzz in the air. People were having a good time, but the park was filling up to the point you literally couldn’t move. There were so many people there we actually couldn’t move the tables to allow people to cross the bridge.
Once we got the bridge open, people started crossing the field. It took 30 minutes to get people onto the field there were so many people and only one small bridge to get onto the field. At this time I am still feeling good. We start getting the helicopter in place and one of the police officers tells me we should hold on because there are still thousands of people on the road. I knew this was not an option so I told him we were doing it because we couldn’t hold the people we had now, much less the ones coming.
I tried to get on our sound system to address the crowd and that was totally worthless. So I took a megaphone and started my way around the entire field giving the same speech probably 12 times. The eggs would drop, I would sound the alarm, KIDS only would run onto the field, once the eggs were gone, kids would sit on the ground and we would allow the parents on the field to get the kids. Everything was fine.
As the helicopter flew over everyone started chanting “Drop the eggs.” I was pumped. I got up on a motorized cart we had there to get a good view. Tim started dropping eggs and people were going nuts. It was awesome.
As soon as the eggs dropped, I sounded the alarm and it happened. At once, the entire crowd rushed the field. I remember looking up and the first thing going through my head was, “That kid just got knocked down.” When I say everyone rushed the field, I mean everyone. People were getting knocked down, trampled, our volunteers were literally run over. I remember thinking something is not right and then it dawned on me that parents were rushing the field, knocking kids down, grabbing eggs, taking eggs from other kids, and acting about as redneck as is possible. At this time I am thinking that it was a pretty good mess, but everything seemed over. I was wrong.
As I am scanning the field, kids are crying like crazy. HUNDREDS of kids didn’t get any eggs, HUNDREDS of kids are covered in mud, and then I hear the parents start screaming out names. HUNDREDS of kids were separated from their parents! You couldn’t find anyone. Parents were screaming, crying, cussing people out (funny thing was I only saw two kids crying). Our volunteers sprung into action and literally people started cussing them out like they were dogs. Some lady slapped one of our volunteers across the face. I have never heard M.F. so much in my life. I kid you not, there were parents falling out on the ground crying because they couldn’t find their children. After an hour or so we got all the kids matched up. I then went out to the EMT’s that were there and they informed me that 3 people had heart attacks and 4 people had passed out!!!!!!
To make matters worse, people were furious and ready to kill us and they couldn’t leave. It took over 2 hours to clear the parking lot. So we stayed. People cussed us out about there kids getting no eggs, their kids getting hurt, their kids getting lost, etc. You COULDN’T get them to calm down.
At one time I look over to one of the police officers and he is literally frozen in shock at what is taking place. People were calling 911 and trying to file missing people reports.
After the event was over things even got crazier. People were emailing us telling us we traumatized their kids from egg hunts, people were calling the office tell me that I was stupid as (well you get the point), people were throwing stuff at our parking volunteers.
I know I am not doing this story justice but I have told it so much I am sick of it. Here are some random crazy things that happened:
- One of the officers told us and I quote, “You guys have literally turned Riverstone Pkwy into the strip in Panama City Beach.” He said people were partying in their cars, pulling over into people’s yards and just hanging out, and women were flashing people!!!!!
- Kids had no eggs, but parents were walking around with hundreds in scooped up in their shirts.
- Some crazy dude was walking up and down the field screaming in some mad man voice for his kid. I thought he was about to shoot all of us!
- I saw a kid fall and a parent pick up their eggs and take them while never helping the child
- I was shocked at how many people in Canton carry knives!!!
- When it was over people were literally driving through soccer fields and over curbs to get out.
Here are some things we learned:
- People will go NUTS over plastic eggs!!!!!
- Parents don’t listen.
- Parents won’t allow their kids to be kids.
- The city of Canton has some of the worse communication in the world. Mayor Hobgood I HOPE you are reading this and I HOPE you call our office. I have let the city know I would like to meet with you and have gotten no response. We communicated EXACTLY what our intentions were with everyone from the city to the DOT to the police and the day of the event they acted like they had no idea what was happening.
- People had a blast! Honestly, for every negative comment we have gotten, we have gotten two positive comments.
- Our volunteers are amazing. I can’t believe the beating they took. At the end of the event they were cheering and ready to do it again!
- The city of Canton is in major need of stuff for families to do!
- IF we do it again, we will put event fencing up around the field and not allow parents in at all.
- Kids are awesome! I had a young boy in a wheel chair who got ONLY two eggs tell me how awesome it was! That made the entire day worth it.
- I knew Canton was redneck, but didn’t know how redneck! I love this town!
- I never knew kids wore the Easter outfits to egg hunts. We ruined a lot of easter clothes!
- I would do it all over again! It was a great event for our community and I stand by how organized we were. NEVER in our wildest dreams could we imagined that many people showing up.
Our heart was to offer an awesome event for the people of our community, nothing more, nothing less. Contrary to popular belief we WERE prepared and if we weren’t someone would have died. I have NEVER been more proud of our people as I was Saturday! They were awesome and I thought the event was awesome!
If you are one of the people who had a bad experience, please accept my apology. That wasn’t our intention. We now know how many people an event like this will draw and we will be even MORE ready if we do something like this again!
