Washingtonville Celebrates Easter Bonnets, Irish Step Dancing, Peter Cottontail, Bagpipes & Egg Hunt

Combining their "Luck 'o the Irish" as rain cleared the area for the Village of Washingtonville's combo "Bagpipes & Bonnets" Easter and St. Patrick's Day event, Vern Allen filled with residents, DJ Tony Flash, Bagpipers, Irish Step Dancers, Hula Hoopers and Peter Cottontail. Add to that a surround of craft tables and huge variety of food trucks and it turned into quite the community party. Given the massive rush for prize eggs (filled with surprise goodies) plus a few special golden eggs with superprizes) it says a lot both about the village residents' good nature, Washingtonville Events Committee's near perfect planning, and a prominently placed friendly police car, it really could not have gone better.

On your mark, Get set, "GO!"

Egg Mania - Over 10,000 eggs with prizes inside were prepared,

and the Events Committee saved some extras to make sure

there were some to find in case the supply in the field went low...it did not!

By mid-afternoon things quieted down a bit and the Sheahan Irish Step Dancers gave quite a treat by an incredibly talented dance troop (See Part 2 for video). The crowd especially loved 2 dances that included toddlers, (one clearly doing her first dance steps ever), and then an impromptu daddy-daughter dance prompting some giggles and ear to ear smiles.

The Easter Parade portion (with separate sections for age groups) brought bonnets of all kind, with efforts to pile adornment after adornment making some a challenge to balance. But true artistic creations had their quality appreciated despite not being a foot or more tall.

Everyone in the Easter Bonnet Contest received a trophy, while top bonnets received 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th prize tall trophies.

Craft tables offered a wide variety of offerings including flower seed packets by the Girl Scouts for Spring planting as a Fundraising effort for the new Sewell Park, essential oils, a muscle car and motorcycle collection, a Photo Booth, Face Painting, 14 Vendors and 14 Food Trucks.

With the Event Committee, led by "Patrick Maiorino (the Celebration Saint)" there was both skill hard work, and a little good Irish Luck that the grounds had dried and the bridge into the park that had been literally under water just hours ago, had children running back and forth between the playground and park along with a very happy young man with what looked like a brand new scooter, a few teens racing each others as if they were in the Olympics, and a group of younger children rolling and rolling along on the fresh green grass.

About 10 dedicated ROTC members from Washingtonville High School did a great job helping to make sure everything went smoothly and returned Vern Allen Park to its usual beautiful spotless parkland site with mountain views.

Part 1 -Peter Cottontail, hula hooping, and the egg hunt photos are courtesy of the Events Committee.

Check back later today for Part II - Irish Step Dancing videos, bunny visitors, Celine the Unicorn Horse and more.