Easter egg hunt starts Dumfries spring events series

An annual Easter Egg hunt will take place Saturday in Dumfries.

The Dumfries-Triangle Rescue Squad purchased Easter Eggs purchased eggs to be hidden at Ginn Memorial Park on Graham Park Road. The event begins at 11 a.m.

Pillar Church in Dumfries will provide a children’s bounce house, as well as volunteers to run family games at the Easter event. The church will also provide an Easter Bunny suit to be worn by Dumfries Parks and Recreation Committee member Matthew Critchley.

Face Odyssey will also be on hand to paint childrens’ faces, according to Dumfries Community Services Director Ryan Gandy.

Easter is the following day, Sunday, April 5.

The following Saturday on April 11, volunteers will gather in Dumfries for the annual Quantico Creek Clean Up. Coffee, bagels, and donuts will be served starting at 8 a.m. at Town Hall while participating volunteers are registered for the event, according to Public Works Director Richard West.

The clean up will take place from 9 a.m. to noon. Lunch will be served after the clean up ends, and volunteers will tally up the amount of garbage collected, said West.

Community Services Director Ryan Gandy is also organizing the town’s Multicultural Festival. It is slated to take place May 9 at 11 a.m. at Merchant Park, next to the Weems-Botts Museum.

Gandy said this year’s event will focus more on celebrating the ethnic heritage of many cultures and less on vendors selling products and services. 

“I am part of the organizing committee, and last year someone came to me and said that [last year’s multicultural festival] wasn’t a multicultural festival,” said Vice Mayor Willie Toney. “We were wondering if we should even continue with that name. The intent was to have a multicultural event to have different people, different food.”

Toney told Gandy he was pleased that this year’s festival will focus more on celebrating diversity in the community.

“I looked back last year on what it became it wasn’t really a multicultural festival,” added Gandy.

Festival goers should expect displays on native and African-African American life as it pertains to the early days of the Town of Dumfries, provided by Historic Dumfries, Inc. Gandy also contacted several food vendors that would “provide cuisine of their native lands,” said Gandy. The details of which food vendors will participate are still being worked out.

The festival is free to attend.