Ryker and Beckett Dodd were eating breakfast, but their minds were on the candy they would soon track down during the Bloomington Township Fire Department’s annual Easter egg hunt.
The Dodd family tradition may only be in its second year, but the Dodds already seemed to be seasoned veterans of the annual Breakfast with the Bunny event.
IU alumna Megan Dodd held her 3-month-old daughter, Lennox, who was wearing a white dress with translucent tule below her tiny waist, on her lap with one hand and ate breakfast with the other. Joshua Dodd sat by their two sons, Ryker, 4, and Beckett, 2, both sporting thick-rimmed glasses and plaid shirts.
The hunt was about to begin.
In a small, grassy space behind the fire station, eggs were placed in regions categorized by age. Joshua approached, one son in his arm and the other grasping his palm.
“3, 2, 1, Happy Easter,” a firefighter said before the children were set free into a cascading waterfall of cheering, stumbling, sprinting and dirtying of dress clothes.
With firefighter hats as baskets, the children ran, wobbled and fell in the new spring grass.
Joshua held Beckett’s hand and directed him to the eggs while Ryker disappeared, later to be found with many eggs in the older children’s section.
“I got candy,” Beckett said. “I got candy.”
The hunt didn’t last long. Within five minutes, the hundreds of eggs Deputy Chief Joel Bomgardner said the firefighters had hidden were gone. However, for children that did not locate any or many eggs, the firefighters had a reserve of candy to offer.
Bomgardner’s favorite part is watching the kids run for the eggs. It’s a treat for the staff and is their biggest event, he said.
“The smiles on their faces, and the laugh and it’s just the sound, the roar that you hear,” he said. “It’s all about the kids, you know, running around and finding an egg and screaming about it.”
Joshua’s brother, Justin, is a firefighter, which is one reason why the Dodds attended the event, Megan said. They like to be there as a family and see how things are going at the firehouse, she said.
Danny Dodd, the boys’ grandfather, took the boys to see the fire trucks outside, where he answered the boys’ questions.
“This is a tanker truck,” Danny said, pointing to a silver truck.
Beckett mixed beeping noises and babbling with audible speech while investigating the fire trucks. His father approached him and held him into the air.
“How does the fire truck go?” he said.
“Wheeeew,” Beckett said, laughing and raising his arms.
The Dodds had one final task — a tour of the simulated fire house.
The two boys crawled, climbed and walked through the trailer ‘house’ to the closed window. Joshua did not open the window for the boys.
“No,” he said. “He has to learn to do it himself.”
The pitch of the parents’ voices changed as they realized it was time to leave and suggested it to the boys. However, one last look at the fire trucks was necessary before departure.
After finishing at the fire station, the family would be going to an uncle’s house to finish celebrating Easter. In order to get the boys to leave, Joshua resorted to sugary bribery.
“Ryker, let’s get in the car and eat some candy,” he said.
