VALDOSTA — When the hunt began, small children and their parents charged into Wild Adventures Theme Park searching for as many multi-colored Easter eggs as they could find.

The real prize of the event was a painted ostrich egg hidden somewhere in the park for the Sixth Annual Great Ostrich Easter Egg Hunt held Saturday morning.

For Sandra Folsom and her grandson, Oakley Folsom, 6, they said they were just happy to be participating in the event. A few days before, Sandra was dropping Oakley off for school when the radio station announced it was offering free tickets to the hunt for the sixth caller.

She decided to give it a shot and ended up being lucky caller number six. They were going to Wild Adventures.

Her lucky streak continued when, during the heat of the hunt, she and Oakley broke from the herd of people heading straight into the park and, instead, veered off to where the cheetah is located.

There, Oakley came across an egg that was twice as big as the others – the fabled ostrich egg.

“He said ‘Look Nana. Look Nana,” and picked this big egg up,” Sandra said. “There was some man near us and he said ‘Ah, man. Only 30 seconds away.’ I think I should go buy a lottery ticket after this.”

Finding the ostrich egg means Oakley and his family will have a couple of 2019 season passes to the park.

Thousands of people attended the 2019 Wild Adventures egg hunt. 

Jon Vigue, assistant general manager, said the park wanted to make the hunt even more special for kids this year, so they doubled the number of eggs from last year to 20,001.

The colorful, prize-filled eggs were hidden throughout Wild Adventures for a park-wide hunt that began 10 a.m. Saturday.

Children carrying Easter egg baskets scurried through the park picking up eggs hidden in bushes, under trees and near the many animal exhibits and rides. It took less than an hour for the park to be picked clean of eggs.

Due to safety and security concerns, trash bags and other oversized bags and baskets were not permitted during the hunt, park officials said.

Because of how quickly the eggs disappear, after the Great Ostrich Easter Egg Hunt, smaller children had the opportunity to participate in two smaller hunts 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Kids 4 years old and younger lined up to search for eggs near Pop Jets. Kids 10 years old and younger were able to search at Adventure Golf.

Wild Adventures will welcome legendary rock band Foreigner April 27 for the next performance in the 2019 All-Star Concert Series.

The Foreigner concert is included with park admission or season pass, park officials said.

Wild Adventures has extended its season pass sale where guests can save up to $15 if purchased before April 28. For more information, including park operating days and hours, visit WildAdventures.com.

Thomas Lynn is a government and education reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be reached at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256