The TigerThon volunteers have been consistently hosting events and collecting donations throughout the year in support of the fight against pediatric cancer, but the group’s most recent event had a special seasonal charm, especially for younger children in the community. The TigerThon Easter Egg hunt on Easter morning brought joy to little kids across NA while helping the organization to raise funds.

“I think that the egg hunt incorporates the community more. A lot of our activities are school-based, but the egg hunt gets people from all around the district and at all ages,” said TigerThon co-captain Abbey Hahn.

The registration mostly consisted of families located in North Allegheny school district barriers, but there were plenty of families eagerly awaiting an egg hunt outside of the district. 

“We were aiming to do it just for people in the district, but we also opened it to teachers and their families who do not live in the district,” Hahn added.

All families interested in having their child participate in their Easter egg hunt excitedly submitted their order forms before April 3, 2022. Each family chose the number of eggs to be placed in their yard, with a higher amount of eggs resulting in more fundraising proceeds.

“Registration was open online, and the link to the Google form was found on the TigerThon social media account,” Hahn said.

Due to its personal touch, TigerThon’s egg hunt was different from other Easter egg hunts. The activity was not held with a large sum of people attending a park in search of eggs in a field — it was set up in each family’s backyard. 

“I think hiding the eggs in the families’ front yards brings a lot of the Easter magic in when the kids wake up in the morning” Hahn said.

But the children searching for eggs were not the only ones looking forward to the event. The fundraising has been gradual this year, due to this being the first year TigerThon can host many events since COVID-19. The gap in TigerThon events makes this year’s schedule even more important than before.

“It’s been kind of hard coming back, with COVID-19 here last year,” TigerThon co-captain Kara Mihm said. “A lot of businesses are still recovering from it, so TigerThon asking for sponsorships and donations has been tough. This year it’s more about involving the community and less about asking for money.”

The egg hunt served as a resoundingly positive event for the organization. 

“In addition to parents reaching out to TigerThon to sign up for the egg hunt, [they also] tend to check out the TigerThon page and the donations occur then,” Mihm added.

The students and staff of TigerThon encouraged all students to reach out to help set up the egg hunt, whether they are a member of TigerThon or not. The extra help was needed to prepare and hide all of the eggs.

The egg hunt was the last TigerThon event before the annual dance on May 7, 2022, from 5 pm to 11 pm. This main event is the last TigerThon event of the 2021-2022 academic year. Donations to the cause can be made here.