Hatching Cherry Hill’s largest Easter egg hunt?

Kingsway Church in Cherry Hill used to host a modest Easter egg hunt, by Pastor Bryon White's standards: about 3,000 eggs and 400 kids and parents.

White, however, had been harboring greater ambitions. "I kind of had this grand vision of 25,000 eggs," he said.

When he shared his idea with staff at the Assembly of God church before last Easter, "people looked at me like I was insane," White said.

He now presides over what he believes to be Cherry Hill's largest egg hunt. On Saturday, volunteers from Kingsway will scatter 30,008 plastic eggs across the Cherry Hill High School West football field.

The manpower required is significant: Last week, 120 volunteers stayed after Sunday services to stuff the eggs - about 25,000 of which the church purchased, the remaining donated - with candy.

There will also be an army of helpers Saturday.

To set up last Easter's egg hunt - the first to be held on the West football field - 150 volunteers arrived hours early to set out the eggs and greet families.

They didn't know what to expect. With just 15 minutes before the hunt, only a few hundred people had shown up, White said.

"I thought, 'Oh, boy,'" he said.

Then the lines of cars started forming. "People were parking blocks away, the lots were full - I mean, it was crazy," White said.

It didn't take long for the eggs to disappear.

"It really is just three minutes of sheer chaos," White said.

While he's calling Saturday's event "the largest egg hunt Cherry Hill has ever seen," White notes he doesn't have evidence. "I didn't do, like, scientific research," he said.

It's also far from setting a world record: That title is held by a 2007 hunt involving 501,000 eggs and 9,753 children at the former Cypress Gardens Adventure Park in Winter Haven, Fla., according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

White, who has been at Kingsway for 13 years, is confident little else in the area compares.

"Who's the church that's doing 25,000? Really?" said Barbara Crankshaw, director of the Shining Lights Preschool at Bethel Baptist Church in Cherry Hill.

Last weekend, Bethel hosted a hunt with about 2,500 eggs - "not 25,000," Crankshaw said. "It'd be interesting to see a pile of 25,000 eggs."

To White, who became lead pastor at Kingsway four years ago, whether the scope of the egg hunt is a first for Cherry Hill doesn't change his goal of reaching out to families and raising the profile of the church.

"My idea is you kind of brand something to what you want to become," he said.

A Twitter-using pastor who says he often preaches in blue jeans, White, 37, describes himself as having "a little bit of a modern flair." He has devoted energy to the church's website, which features staff bios and videotaped sermons.

White also oversaw a recently completed renovation of the building at Chapel Avenue and Cooper Landing Road, where White said the church has been housed since the 1960s. The project cost nearly $2 million, funded by donations from church members, White said.

The renovated building has a contemporary design, he said. "It kind of has an Ikea vibe to it," White said.

In the last four years, the church's attendance has almost doubled, White said. About 630 people attended services on a recent Sunday; White estimates between 700 and 750 attend regularly.

He believes some of that growth is a result of the church's presence in the community through its events and service projects. In addition to the egg hunt, the church hosts a Halloween "trunk or treat" event - featuring candy in car trunks - that White said has drawn more than 3,000 people.

Claude Ricciardi and his wife, Koren, of Cherry Hill, began attending Kingsway after taking their 4-year-old son, Lucas, to the Halloween event in 2011.

"We fell in love with the church and the people," Ricciardi said.

The Ricciardis took their son to the egg hunt last year and are returning Saturday - this time with Koren's sisters and five of their children.

"It gets bigger and bigger," Ricciardi said.

To ensure safety and allow parents to keep a close eye on their children, White said this year's egg hunt will have age divisions, the oldest of which goes up to 12.

The church will also dedicate more volunteers to managing parking, White said. The event starts at 10 a.m.

The principal at Cherry Hill West, Joseph Meloche, said the school has no problem hosting the hunt. "Honestly, they run everything," he said. "They do a great job."

Still, he was startled when White first shared what he had planned.

"I said, '25,000?'" Meloche said. "To me, it's almost unfathomable."

It isn't to White, who said he's considered whether the church should set out 50,000.

"I just hope we have enough eggs," he said.