Arlington City Council member Jesica Stickles was joined by Mayor Barbara Tolbert and other city officials and volunteers in collecting tickets and coordinating the event.

Stickles estimated that approximately 1,500 attendees of all ages showed up at Haller Middle School March 25 for the flashlight Easter Egg Hunt, which was three times more than event organizers had expected.

“We were overwhelmed by the response,” Stickles said. “We had a problem with some parents not following directions, and going on the field with their kids during the toddler hunt.”

Stickles urged parents whose children either didn’t get any eggs or got hurt to email YMCA Director Mary Bredereck at Mbredereck@ymca-snoco.org.

“There are always some kids who don’t get eggs and are sad, but there were a couple of sweet kids going around and giving their eggs to the sad kids,” Stickles said. “There was also a handful of parents who purposefully overpaid to get in, just because they knew it was a good cause.”

Of the $5,870 raised that evening, 100 percent will go toward the Stanwood/Camano YMCA, which is slated to open this fall.

Stickles sits on the Y’s board, and explained that the new facility is intended to serve North Snohomish County, just as the Marysville Family YMCA serves Marysville and Tulalip.

Over at the Arlington Airport fields March 26, the city, the Arlington United Church and Cascade Valley Hospital laid out 10,000 eggs, including 14 grand prizes.

Prizes included art bags from the Arlington Arts Council and book bucks from the Friends of the Arlington Library, while toy coins earned egg-hunters extra candy.

Mom Tia Dawson is moving to Arlington from Granite Falls, but this marked her family’s second year at the hunt.

“The people who run this one are very nice,” Dawson said, as she held her 10-month-old son, Tucker.

The Posenjak family just moved to Arlington from Everett a month ago, and were impressed by their first hunt on the airport fields.

“This is awesome,” mom Reegan Posenjak said. “I’ve never been to an Easter Egg Hunt like this. It’s very casual and laid-back.”

While Reegan and her husband, Jacob, most enjoy Reese’s eggs, their daughter Adalyn, 4, is a big fan of Tootsie Rolls. As for their 2-year-old son, Corban, he most enjoyed the airplanes flying overhead.

Lucy Wilson is 10 years old, but she’s still hunting for Easter eggs at the airport field, as she’s done since she was 4.

As much as she appreciates the sweets and prizes, though, she hopes that people don’t forget the reason for the festivities.

“I don’t need candy,” Lucy said. “I just hope everyone remembers that this day honors the death and rebirth of Jesus.”

In Marysville, city officials estimated the crowd to be its biggest ever, thanks to sunny skies instead of the predicted rain.

“It was packed,” Mayor Jon Nehring said. “It was hard to find parking.”

Parks director Jim Ballew estimated the crowd at 3,000 over the 1 1/2 hours of the hunt. There were so many people more children than ever were separated from their parents.

“They were all found,” Ballew said.

“The Easter egg hunt was so orderly,” said city council member Donna Wright, who gave out big Easter baskets to winners.