Homer, GA -- It’s been called the world’s largest Easter egg hunt and yesterday, the Garrison family once again opened their farm to the public for the big event.
For almost 50 years, the Garrisons have held the egg hunt on their sprawling family farm on Highway 51 south. Matt Garrison is the keeper of the annual hunt, which began with his grandfather as a way to give back to his community.
“My granddaddy started this in 1959 and my uncle and daddy…all now deceased…carried it on. Now it’s been passed down to me and I continue to do it,” he explained.
On Sunday, thousands of parents and kids gathered to scoop up over 100,000 candy Easter eggs as well as 100 plastic eggs containing prizes.
Volunteers and Garrison family members, wearing brightly colored orange t-shirts, manned the pasture gates until it was time, at 2 p.m., to let the egg hunters in.
“Three, two, one, go!” shouted the emcee over a PA system set up on the back of a pickup in front of the Garrison family home.
At that, at least a thousand screaming and squealing children dashed into the pasture with their empty baskets in one hand, grabbing the candy eggs strewn on the ground with the other.
“I got three prize eggs!” one child proudly announced to his mother.
Prizes included toys, stuffed bunnies or live ones and certificates to the local Sonny’s Bar-b-Que restaurant.
In 1985, the Guinness Book of World Records certified Homer’s Easter Egg Hunt as the World’s largest. That year, more than 20,000 people turned out to hunt for eggs.