JACKSON – The hunt was on at two locations for prized filled eggs on Palm Sunday in the township. One was at the soccer field by the Justice Complex while the other was at a township church. At both of them, the children had a basket full of fun and lots of eggs.
You can’t keep a good rabbit down and despite lots of rain for its original date, the Easter Bunny made it near the soccer field at 1 Jackson Drive for the township’s annual Easter Egg hunt. The event that drew more than 300 attendees was coordinated by the Township’s Recreation Department who partnered with the township’s Commission for the Disabled/Handicapped who helped bring smiles to the faces of many children of varied ages. Eggs were well hidden around the Jackson soccer field.
The event featured a DJ, food trucks, ice cream, face painting, crafts and of course, the Easter Bunny was the star attraction. Recreation Director Anthony Horta said he was very pleased with the turnout.
In an interview with The Jackson Times, the Easter Bunny said, “this is the first year they (the Recreation Department) got together with the Commission for the Disabled/Handicapped we put out more than 6,500 eggs. We had face painting going on and Mr. Creamy (ice cream vendor truck) is here.”
Karen Lundgren, the secretary of the Commission for the Disabled/Handicapped was having fun with a fellow member of the commission which had two tables – one of which offered a craft activity.
“The kids were really having a great time and the weather isn’t too bad today,” Lundgren added.
“We had a lot of people today. They came in droves,” Horta said.
“Those eggs went fast,” Lundgren added.
Around the same time at Jackson Church located at 68 Bennetts Mills Road, an inside egg hunt was taking place. The Youth Group of the church were busy preparing displays of plastic eggs and tying palms into crosses for the Palm Sunday service as well as setting up dozens of colorful plastic eggs inside two class rooms for the smaller children’s egg hunt.
Denise Tiedemann, the Senior Pastor at Jackson Church, formerly known as Jackson United Methodist Church was happy over the turnout for her morning service and the many children who enjoyed the day’s egg hunt.
“We are still a Methodist church but we call ourselves Jackson Church now. Our youth program started from this arts ministry called Jackson Arts Ministry which started very small where I was writing skits and writing stand up for the kids,” Pastor Tiedemann said.
The pastor noted, “it had a very humble beginning but it started growing and we started doing a few shows each year and now we have our youngest group is the Junior Jammers which is 2nd to 4th graders and we have through 8th grade and a high school group now.”
“In the first weekend of June they are doing “Annie Jr.” with the middle school group and the high school group is doing “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.” She noted that the church bought an outside stage during the years of the pandemic “as it was safer to meet outside and now the late spring early summer show it is really nice to sit outside and watch the kids perform.”
She added the church’s youth groups meet twice a month. “We have the one worship service at 10:30 a.m. and I also serve a smaller church, Pleasant Grove which is a little chapel in Jackson which I go to at 9 a.m. and then come here at 10:30.”
The church also has a special needs ministry that meets on the first and second Monday night of the month. “It is for young adults with special needs and they do some worship and fellowship and adults come and mentor them and they participate in the church,” the pastor added.
“We are trying to do our best to share our faith through what we do. The most important message is you are made for a reason; God loves you. There is a lot of uncertainty and a lot of unknowns but one of the things we want to share is that even when things look a little different there is a lot of wonderful things going on and reasons to be hopeful,” Pastor Tiedemann said. The church’s website is jackson.church.
