OBSERVER file photo Laona’s Easter Egg Hunt, including this event from 2018, has been an annual tradition for 40 years. Evie Sievert is pictured at left.

LAONA — After four decades, the Laona Easter Egg Hunt will be celebrating its final year Saturday. The event will begin at 10 a.m. at the Laona Playground.

The event has brought happiness to children and families in northern Chautauqua County for roughly 40 years, and this year’s event aims to do the same once more. There will be 50 Easter “bags” to give away, along with a stuffed bunny raffle and two new bikes with helmets. The annual event’s very own Easter Bunny helper will be there for the festivities.

Evie Sievert has organized the event since her daughter was a teenager. She said the event was very well attended for the first three decades, but as times have changed, fewer children have shown up to the event over the past decade.

Sievert, 77, decided this would be her final year due to the difficulty of putting together the event each year. She kept going this long because she wanted to do something for the kids in the community, like she did in the past with a carnival and a haunted house.

“I just wanted to do it for the kids,” Sievert said.

Sievert said the children who keep coming back each year enjoy the event because it is a smaller, more intimate event that allows for guests to interact after not seeing each other for a while.

Volunteers helped put together this year’s event, as they did last year. Sievert thanks the community for its support over the years, including Jude Gardner, Pomfret Highway Superintendent.

“The town has been very supportive in helping me buy the things that I need for it, and making sure everything is OK at the playground before we get started,” Sievert said.

With the unpredictability of spring weather, guests are urged to dress accordingly. With any questions, call Sievert at (716) 673-1051.