The city of Fairbury got the Easter celebration started early with the latest installments of a pair of long-running community events on Saturday.

Up first, a crowd of kids flocked to the Fairbury Public Library for an Easter event sponsored by local org Jeffs Gone Mad. It featured crafts, games and activities in the morning, capped off by an Easter egg hunt throughout the library's lawn, and of course, a meet and greet with the Easter Bunny.

All was quiet around the iconic Jefferson County Courthouse on Saturday morning, but soon that silence was snapped when families with kids of all ages lined the paths around the courthouse lawn for the Fairbury Easter egg hunt, an annual event the town's Chamber of Commerce has sponsored for more than two decades.


Half of the courthouse grounds were subdivided by age group, and everyone lined up and waited patiently for the hunt to begin. But once the bell tower chimed once, everyone was off to the races - and just about five minutes later, all the targets had been acquired.
Finally, it was time to evaluate the haul, meet up with a famous furry character, and place all the plastic eggs back in a box to be used again for next year's Fairbury Easter festivities.