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So about a month ago, Bossman told me I was doing an Easter egg hunt at The Resort. I'd never organized such a feat.
My background: Growing up, we only did small family hunts, and not even every year. The one time we did an Easter egg hunt at a commercial venue was when I was three and we went to the mall. All the other kids were mean (in my three-year-old eyes, they were mean) and got to all the eggs before me, and I ended up collapsing in a heap and crying until someone pointed out that the Easter bunny had snuck candy into my basket when I was busy crying.
So yeah, with only that history, I was organizing this egg hunt, from the planning to the purchasing to the set-up and running of the event, and it happened yesterday with mixed success.
The good: The weather held out. It was supposed to rain. I bought a f*ckton of fake grass to set up indoors if needed, but happily it wasn't needed. We were able to hide eggs outside.
Also, we were running the egg hunt in rounds. My coworker was able to set up some other parts of the resort indoors rather brilliantly for me to take the kids to. The first area she had me take the kids to, when I looked I didn't see any eggs and I still am not sure how she hid a couple hundred in that particular room. The kids found them all, though.
She set up one of our lobbies twice. The first time I let the kids go, a couple came in to cut through the lobby from the spa. They saw the wave of kids coming at them and had to literally jump out of the way of the stampede! They were laughing the whole time, though, so no harm done.
The second time, I led the kids over, and there was a guest standing right in the middle very intently tapping away on his phone. I could barely keep the kids contained, and I kept looking over hoping the guy would look up so I could motion him out of the way, but he stood there tapping, oblivious to the sounds of dozens of excited kids mere yards away. So I said "Okay, GO!" and the herd broke forth, and as they began to swarm around the guy, he just slowly looked up and around, his eyes growing wider in the most perfect WTF face I ever saw. So worth it!
The bad: We ran out of eggs about 20 minutes before we wanted to. Unfortunately, there were no stats on how many kids had attended this event in years past before The Resort closed. I based all my math on 60 kids. We had at least twice that! I had stuffed 700 eggs, but next year we're doing 1500-2000, and I told the GSRs everyone gets to stuff 300 eggs to contribute next year. We were a bit short-staffed, too. I just didn't plan big enough.
A couple parents reamed me out saying they weren't told when the final round started. Coworker had made the all, and I saw some people not moving so I had her walk around and herd everyone, including this particular mom. They were ignoring us, though.
I asked the parent to bring her kids up but she was adamant about just yelling at me saying how poorly organized the event was and that her kids were upset. I was out of eggs but I had wrapped candy and was willing to set up a small round with that for her kids and their friends but didn't get a chance.
Then she complained to my manager who came up and asked what was up, and my manager was feeling sick and came off a bit more harshly than she wanted to. She did apologize later and asked if I was okay but yeah, the end of the morning kind of sucked.
On the plus side, as I was tearing down the craft zone (where the kids could decorate their own gift bag "baskets" with markers and stickers), I spoke with a very nice gentleman who had brought his kid to the hunt. He and his wife had gotten married at The Resort and came every year except last year when we were closed. We literally talked for like 10 minutes and he congratulated me for doing a good job on the hunt. A few other parents came up and thanked me as well so that helped make up for the bitchy parent.
Overall, the kids were a hoot and had fun. If any didn't, I didn't see them (just Bitchy Parent). Next year we'll make it bigger (and hopefully have a company credit card...I literally paid for EVERYTHING out-of-pocket and am waiting until next payday for reimbursement). And, while I'm happy the kids had fun, I'm mostly happy that Bossman declared the event a success, and if he is happy then I can be happy.
Afterward I went out, got drunk at lunch, and then bought cards and gifts (while still drunk, heh heh) for the CWs who helped (including my Easter Bunny who was awesome).
As long as The Boss was happy with it, I'm going say "good enough" and be happy with it (though I have a ton of notes written down for next year!).
My background: Growing up, we only did small family hunts, and not even every year. The one time we did an Easter egg hunt at a commercial venue was when I was three and we went to the mall. All the other kids were mean (in my three-year-old eyes, they were mean) and got to all the eggs before me, and I ended up collapsing in a heap and crying until someone pointed out that the Easter bunny had snuck candy into my basket when I was busy crying.
So yeah, with only that history, I was organizing this egg hunt, from the planning to the purchasing to the set-up and running of the event, and it happened yesterday with mixed success.
The good: The weather held out. It was supposed to rain. I bought a f*ckton of fake grass to set up indoors if needed, but happily it wasn't needed. We were able to hide eggs outside.
Also, we were running the egg hunt in rounds. My coworker was able to set up some other parts of the resort indoors rather brilliantly for me to take the kids to. The first area she had me take the kids to, when I looked I didn't see any eggs and I still am not sure how she hid a couple hundred in that particular room. The kids found them all, though.
She set up one of our lobbies twice. The first time I let the kids go, a couple came in to cut through the lobby from the spa. They saw the wave of kids coming at them and had to literally jump out of the way of the stampede! They were laughing the whole time, though, so no harm done.
The second time, I led the kids over, and there was a guest standing right in the middle very intently tapping away on his phone. I could barely keep the kids contained, and I kept looking over hoping the guy would look up so I could motion him out of the way, but he stood there tapping, oblivious to the sounds of dozens of excited kids mere yards away. So I said "Okay, GO!" and the herd broke forth, and as they began to swarm around the guy, he just slowly looked up and around, his eyes growing wider in the most perfect WTF face I ever saw. So worth it!
The bad: We ran out of eggs about 20 minutes before we wanted to. Unfortunately, there were no stats on how many kids had attended this event in years past before The Resort closed. I based all my math on 60 kids. We had at least twice that! I had stuffed 700 eggs, but next year we're doing 1500-2000, and I told the GSRs everyone gets to stuff 300 eggs to contribute next year. We were a bit short-staffed, too. I just didn't plan big enough.
A couple parents reamed me out saying they weren't told when the final round started. Coworker had made the all, and I saw some people not moving so I had her walk around and herd everyone, including this particular mom. They were ignoring us, though.
I asked the parent to bring her kids up but she was adamant about just yelling at me saying how poorly organized the event was and that her kids were upset. I was out of eggs but I had wrapped candy and was willing to set up a small round with that for her kids and their friends but didn't get a chance.
Then she complained to my manager who came up and asked what was up, and my manager was feeling sick and came off a bit more harshly than she wanted to. She did apologize later and asked if I was okay but yeah, the end of the morning kind of sucked.
On the plus side, as I was tearing down the craft zone (where the kids could decorate their own gift bag "baskets" with markers and stickers), I spoke with a very nice gentleman who had brought his kid to the hunt. He and his wife had gotten married at The Resort and came every year except last year when we were closed. We literally talked for like 10 minutes and he congratulated me for doing a good job on the hunt. A few other parents came up and thanked me as well so that helped make up for the bitchy parent.
Overall, the kids were a hoot and had fun. If any didn't, I didn't see them (just Bitchy Parent). Next year we'll make it bigger (and hopefully have a company credit card...I literally paid for EVERYTHING out-of-pocket and am waiting until next payday for reimbursement). And, while I'm happy the kids had fun, I'm mostly happy that Bossman declared the event a success, and if he is happy then I can be happy.
Afterward I went out, got drunk at lunch, and then bought cards and gifts (while still drunk, heh heh) for the CWs who helped (including my Easter Bunny who was awesome).
As long as The Boss was happy with it, I'm going say "good enough" and be happy with it (though I have a ton of notes written down for next year!).
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