Vernon residents celebrate Easter with egg race on homemade water track

Saturday was race day at Vernon’s go-to place for Easter fun.

Graham Schnare has been hosting massive Easter egg hunts since 2002. Before the pandemic struck, the Schnares were welcoming more than 150 people to search for more than 1,200 eggs on their Commonage Road property.

Now amid the pandemic, the Schnares have opted for a different sort of Easter celebration: an egg race on a homemade water track.

Teams representing the U.S., Canada, Finland and Ukraine competed in the just-for-fun Easter event.

“We got our friends in Denver, Col., to paint the U.S. eggs, we got our friends in Finland to do the Finnish team, and there’s people of Ukrainian descent in Winfield who are our friends who did the Ukraine team,” Schnare said.

West Vancouver’s Cori Creed, a renowned contemporary artist, painted the Team Canada eggs.

“We do three heats, four eggs on each team, and we count the first six that do three laps,” said Schnare, explaining the process. “Right now I think Ukraine is going to win the whole thing.”

Schnare, whose son works at the Okanagan Science Centre, says the centre has agreed to host the egg race for kids to enjoy next year.

Propelled by a sump pump around the water track, the eggs put on a nail-biting performance — but no matter which team won, it was all about the fun.

“To be honest, we have more fun creating the eggs and trash talking before the race,” Schnare laughed. “(The race) is kind of anticlimactic but we’ve been having so much fun.”