White House to host eco-friendly Easter Egg roll

Annual Easter event will feature wellness activities and official White House Earth-friendly wooden eggs.

Tue, Mar 09 2010 at 8:00 AM EST

LOOKS LIKE EASTER: The official 2010 White House Easter Eggs. (Photo courtesy of WhiteHouse.gov)

With a theme of “Ready, Set, Go!” this year's annual White House Easter Egg Roll will focus on healthy kids and going green. According to the official White House site, the event will be held on April 5, 2010, and will feature live music, sports, cooking stations, storytelling and, of course, Easter egg rolling. All of the activities will be geared towards encouraging children to lead healthy and active lives as part of Michelle Obama's Let’s Move! campaign to combat childhood obesity.

In addition to health and wellness, the official Easter egg roll will have a green spin — environmentally-friendly wooden eggs made in the U.S. from FSC-certified hardwood that feature vegetable-oil based inks and a water-based coating. The eco-eggs will come in purple, pink, green and yellow and feature the stamped signatures of both President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.

DC area kids used to roll eggs on the Capitol grounds, but uptight lawmakers grew agitated by the damage to the grass and passed the Turf Protection Law banning the practice in 1876. Two years later in 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes opened the White House grounds to area kids and they've been rolling eggs there ever since.

Notable events from previous egg rolls include the 1941 roll that acommodated a record 53,000 people (nowadays the numbers are limited to about 20,000); the 2006 event during which more than 100 same-sex couples showed up with their children in an organized effort to show President Bush "that gay families exist in this country;" and the Clinton administration's 1998 egg roll which was the first to be broadcast on the Internet.

The lottery for tickets to the annual event closed on Feb 28th. Got tickets? Check the federal site recreation.gov to find out where, when, and how to get there. All participants under the age of 12 will receive a souvenir "eco-egg," produced and sold by the National Park Foundation. But don't worry, if you didn't get in, you can also pick them up online for $7.50 a piece at the National Park Foundation website.

If you want to get into the spirit, check out this video of the 2009 egg roll: