Carrie Jones

Apr 05, 2026

BAR HARBOR—In the soft bright chill of a Maine morning, as the sun began its morning pilgrimage across the Northern sky, families gathered at the Bar Harbor Inn in Bar Harbor and waited for the signal that would send hundreds of small boots and sneakers and a few fancy shoes racing across the grass.

More than 3,000 Easter eggs lay hidden in the cold, along with a handful of gold ones that glowed in the imagination of every child clutching a basket at the Bar Harbor Inn, April 4.

The inn was only one chapter in a town-wide ritual that had already filled the pool at the MDI YMCA with floating eggs and simultaneously scattered bright plastic treasures across the gym floor at the YWCA of Mount Desert Island. Spring had not quite arrived, but the promise of it had, carried in chilly hands and the hopeful clamor before the hunt.

It takes a community to make community.

The staff and volunteers at the Bar Harbor Inn hid more than 3,000 of those Easter eggs, plus special bigger gold eggs.

The chill weather had some Easter egg hunters hunkering down in the inn before beginning the hunt for the eggs at the 10 a.m. start. Some took advantage of crafts. Some posed with the Easter bunny.

The MDI YMCA held an Easter egg hunt in its pool on Thursday. Easter cheer involved waters, splashing, goggles and a whole lot of plastic eggs floating in the lanes.

The YWCA of Mount Desert Island hosted eggs hunters from 10-noon in age-focused sessions, spreading eggs throughout their gym floor, covered with faux grass and hiding some up in trees while also treating its young hippity-hoppers to games, photo booths, and more.

At the Bar Harbor Inn, the search was on for the special golden eggs and there was a self-enforced limit on collecting just 15 eggs each.

Lenten services filled the dockets of Christian churches on the island and Easter services occur today.

Midway through the hunt at the Bar Harbor Inn, one little boy started hiding his own eggs. He had less than 15 already.

“What are you doing?” his mom asked.

“I’m being the Easter bunny,” he said. “Shh…”

“His helper?”

He hopped, once, twice, three times. “Yeah. His helper.”

The helpers at all three events are what makes these events happen year after year. There are planners and doers. There are staff members and volunteers.

But most of all, there is a lot of joy and togetherness, a making of memories.

“This way! This way!” children shouted as they rushed to the various areas of the Bar Harbor Inn’s lawn.

“She has the golden egg!” one dad said.

“I have it! I have it!” his daughter said.

“No way!” said another egg hunter, pounding over the grass to check it out.

“You have to show Mom,” someone said.

She looked up, tucked her golden egg safely in her basket and yelled, running across the gross, “Mom! Mom!”

Everyone celebrated with her. That joy, that collective happiness, the celebration of a win, the shared hunt for treasure, the transformation of a gym or an inn lawn or a pool into an adventure as spring promises to return and families and friends share joy together?

That’s a big part of what community, what helping, and what a town can be about.

The Bar Harbor Inn’s egg hunt was run by the staff and volunteers of Witham Family Hotels. The YMCA’s and YWCA’s events were run by its staff and volunteers as well.

These hunts do not happen by accident. They happen because people show up early with coffee and cold fingers and a willingness to help, from the staff of Witham Family Hotels to volunteers who tuck eggs behind trees and along pool edges and floating right on the water and throughout faux grass in the YWCA gym.

And for a little while, on a morning that still felt a bit like winter, Bar Harbor became a cheering section for one child’s golden egg and another child’s decision to hide his own so someone else might feel the thrill of finding it. That shared celebration — the running, the shouting, the laughter echoing across lawn and water and hardwood floors — is the quiet, stubborn proof that community is something you build together, one small act of joy and service at a time.

Photos: Shaun Farrar and Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story

We had far too many photos to include here, but you can check a lot more out over on our Facebook page.

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