Children egg-static over Easter-themed event (2025)

Royal Aviation Museum’s sold-out festivities feature scavenger hunt, egg toss

By: Nicole BuffiePosted: 2:39 PM CDT Saturday, Apr. 19, 2025

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The Easter bunny touched down at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada Saturday afternoon.

Hundreds of hunters jetted around the museum in search of Easter eggs to crack the museum’s Easter-themed riddle.

The prize? Bragging rights — and a pouch of sweets.

Eden Balaboskain came to win.

“I’ve already found four clues and I just need a few more,” she said while sleuthing around a Canadair F-86 Sabre.

Her and her family usually do an Easter egg hunt at home, but were up for the museum’s challenge this year.

Plush Easter bunny toys and plastic eggs containing riddle clues were on display amid the museum’s planes and exhibits. Children clad in pastels and bunny ears wandered around the museum while parents helped to point out clues and took photos of their young ones participating in the scavenger hunt and Easter egg toss.

The museum’s third-annual event completely sold-out. The museum had three time slots with about 250 attendees each throughout the day.

James Mitchell, marketing specialist for the museum, said staff took feedback from previous years to add more engagement with the museum to this year’s event.

The previous two years the museum hosted a massive egg hunt with paper eggs for attendees to find. This year, specific clues were hidden around the building to find and put together to solve a riddle.

“Rather than a kind of rush just to find eggs, we turned it into a scavenger hunt so everyone can take their time and explore the museum as they move around,” Mitchell said. “So you kind of feel like you’ve explored the museum more and learned a bit along the way.”

Shehnoor Tung and her two children, Ibaadat and Zorawar, have lived in Winnipeg for 11 years but celebrated their first Easter at the museum Saturday.

“Whenever I drop someone off at the airport I always find the museum very fascinating so now with the Easter event I thought it was perfect to get to celebrate the holiday and see the museum at the same time,” Tung said.

Events like the Easter egg hunt help the museum to keep its doors open, Mitchell said.

On May 4 the museum will host a science fiction-themed day, with elements from Star Wars woven into the programming.

On Father’s Day the building will host a Wings & Wheels event which will feature a classic car show on Aviation Plaza outside the museum.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca

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