ROME TOWNSHIP — There may be snow on the ground and thoughts of sugar plums dancing in heads, but that’s when a group of Proctorville community volunteers start thinking about Easter.

It takes that long to organize the Community Easter egg hunt at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds. This Saturday will be the eighth annual hunt that attracts crowds of between 4,000 to 5,000 to track down tens of thousands of eggs stuffed with candies.

“We start stuffing eggs at Christmas and then we work all year-long getting donations,” said Debbie Reynolds, head of the entertainment committee.

The idea of the hunt originated with Sanctuary of Grace Church, but today other churches in the area join in.

“It’s the whole community of churches,” she said. “The very first one we did, we thought there would be 20 or 30 kids. We had 400. We didn’t have enough eggs. It threw us for a loop. The next one we were prepared.”

And prepared they have continued to be as the volunteers have turned a simple hunt into a day’s entertainment.

“We have so many things going on,” Reynolds said. “Live music, 16 face painters, four huge inflatables. It’s just wonderful.”

Children’s cartoon characters will stroll the fair grounds along with the Easter bunny eager to have his photo taken with each child.

“Clowns with balloons will work the whole fairgrounds,” she said. “Princesses will give away wands to the first 600 little girls and pirates will give away treasure to the first 600 little girls. It is truly an experience.”

The fairground gates open at 11 a.m. with games and entertainment and the hunt begins at 12:30 p.m.

“Children are divided into age groups so the big ones aren’t running over the little kids,” Reynolds said. “If they are able to walk and up to 12 are allowed to hunt.”

Workers start hiding eggs throughout the fairgrounds at 8 a.m.

“We literally put out 26,000 eggs,” she said. “It is a cool event.”