Easter Eggs-travaganda at the Church of Scientology in East Grinstead

Families travelled from miles around, throughout Sussex, Surrey, Kent and beyond – with over 130 towns and cities represented

The young and not so young were greeted on arrival by ⁠Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, ⁠Paddington Bear, Peter Rabbit, Rocky and Marshall from the Paw Patrol, ⁠Queen Poppy, ⁠Pikachu, ⁠Super Mario Bross, ⁠Princess Peaches, ⁠Princess Belle (from the Beauty and the Beast), Cinderella, and of course the Easter Bunny. There were hugs and photos galore!

More than 35,000 eggs were distributed in four different zones for each age group, with seven different Easter Egg hunts during the afternoon.

1:30 pm – The Big Hunt for all ages, when 2000 youngsters and adults swarmed across the fields with great gusto!

2:30 pm – Three different egg hunts divided by age

3:30 pm – An additional three egg hunts divided by age

Many other activities throughout the grounds provided non-stop entertainment and adventures. These included Lenny the Land Train rides, a petting zoo, donkey rides, fair rides, bungy trampoline, sack race, tin can alley, bubble world, kite flying, seven bouncy castles, face-painting, selfie stations, slippery pole, barbecues and picnic areas! Indoors there were arts & crafts, a photo booth and soft play area for the little ones.

All who came had smiles guaranteed, as any children who didn’t find many eggs had their baskets ‘topped up’ on departure – and with 35,000 eggs there were plenty to go around.

Some children with a “big catch” shared their eggs with others, in the true Easter spirit of giving! One little girl even came to see some of the volunteers on her way out and gave each some of her Easter eggs, saying, “thank you for today”.

Some of the other comments from visitors were:

“We had a really lovely day, thank you for making it so special for the kids.”

“Thank you for all your work, it looks so beautiful here and so clean!”

“Look, it’s a real castle!”

“It is so caring and considerate of the staff for the little kids – when they saw the bigger kids running and taking the eggs, the staff went around throwing more eggs for the little ones too which made them very happy!”

“We’ve all had such a great time here. Do you have any other open days? This is my first time here and it’s been amazing and I’d love to bring my children back another time.”

Event organiser, Mathilde Jensen said: “It’s been a wonderful day - so many happy faces – and plenty of eggs for everyone. We love putting on these events for the community, it’s a total joy. And the weather was perfect! I’d like to thank all of the many volunteers and also all the families who came – you all helped to make it such fun.”

Look out for future community events hosted at Saint Hill, on the website, saint-hill.uk or on Eventbrite (Saint Hill, Church of Scientology).

For more information about the Church of Scientology, see scientology.org.uk or scientology.tv.