Though some early morning rain meant the grass in the city’s Main Street Park was damp and the temperatures were more reminiscent of a December holiday, that didn’t stop a huge crowd from turning out for a Friday morning egg hunt in Escalon.

Sponsored for the third year by the local Poppy on Main business, owner Jamie Butler said the egg hunt is a fun, festive way to mark the Easter holiday with the community.

“Three thousand eggs; it went really good, our third annual,” Butler said of the March 29 festivities, noting that it was the second year in a row there has been some rain but it didn’t dampen the event. “It’s just to have fun and to thank our customers.”

Mixed in with the brightly colored plastic eggs, filled with treats, were some special golden eggs. The finders of those eggs opened them up to find a cash prize.

“We did prizes from Poppy last year but some of the boys couldn’t find things so we just did $10 in the golden eggs,” Butler said.

There was no cost to attend the egg hunt; kids of all ages lined up at the edge of the grass in the park and waited for the countdown to the 11 a.m. start.

Once the hunt started, kids with colorful baskets raced across the park, picking up as many eggs as they could find while parents and grandparents followed along behind, capturing the scene on cell phones.

Amazingly, it took just a few minutes for the 3,000 eggs to be found and dropped into baskets, buckets and bags.

Then, kids could join the line and wait for a photo with the Easter Bunny, set up near the Main Street stage. Elsewhere, groups of youngsters gathered with friends to compare their haul.

Friday was the start of the Spring Break for Escalon Unified School District, so there were plenty of kids turning out to enjoy the egg hunt in the park.

Schools are off this week; classes on all campuses resume on Monday, April 8.