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Warning: Easter eggs will be falling from the sky in 10 days.

Revolution Church in Canton is using a helicopter owned and piloted by member Gene Hindman to drop half of the 50,000 plastic-filled eggs it will have for its first-ever Easter egg hunt into Boling Park on March 22.

"We'll drop 25,000 eggs from the helicopter because it can only hold so many, and the other 25,000 will already be on the field (inside the walking track)," Lead Pastor Gary Lamb said. "The kids will be on the sides, and after he's out of the way, we'll bring on the kids. Fifty thousand eggs will be gone in about 15 seconds. It's like a wedding. We put all this work into it, and it'll be over in 15 seconds."

The $64,000 question is how will they keep the eggs from breaking apart after being dropped from 50 feet off the ground.

"But everybody we've talked to said that's not an issue," Lamb said. "I guess we're hoping they'll fall in the grass softly. The candy is individually wrapped so I don't think the kids will care if the eggs break open. We're hoping the 'wow' factor will overlook the cracked-egg factor."

Kids who are fifth-graders and younger are invited to participate, and each age group will have its own section of the field in which to hunt eggs. Children 3 and younger will have their own special area.

Once all the eggs have been snatched up, the kids will "sit down where they are and open their eggs," Lamb said.

"Some eggs will have pieces of paper telling them what prize they've won," he said, noting every egg also will contain candy.

Among the prizes will be Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 game systems, iPod Nanos and Shuffles, Leap Frog games, Toys R Us gift cards and cash.

The church, which will have 250 volunteers helping with the event, has never done an egg hunt before and didn't really have plans to do one this year either.

"We always said we'd never do it because there are plenty of egg hunts around," Lamb said. "But there's not anybody that does a large-scale Easter egg hunt around here. We fought it, but it was a need in the community, a need in the community that we could meet. So this was a great way to give back. We took something very traditional like an egg hunt and did a modern version for people who might not go to church."

Since a church member happened to own a helicopter, "we thought it would be kind of cool" to use it for an egg hunt, Lamb said.

"What we decided to do is get 50,000 eggs, rent out Boling Park and drop the eggs from a helicopter," he said. "We've heard about other people doing it in other states and thought it sounded fun."

Besides hunting eggs, kids also can burn off some energy in two play zones -- one for preschoolers and one for older kids -- that will include 12 to 14 inflatables, face-painting stations, emergency vehicles to view and a visit from the Easter Bunny.

Since this is the church's first egg hunt, Lamb said members have no idea how many kids will show up, but they're preparing for 5,000.

"We really don't know what to expect, but we're hoping for 4,000 to 5,000 kids," he said, noting the church is heavily advertising the event. "I think people will come just to see what we're doing. And the prizes are so huge, I think kids will come out for that, too."

Another Cherokee church is using its Easter egg hunt to mark a special occasion.

Toonigh Baptist Church in Lebanon will dedicate its new $25,000 playground during its community egg hunt on March 22.

"We will be finished with the playground at that time," said Tracey Matthews of Nelson, the children's church coordinator. "The egg hunt and playground are for the children (so) it seemed like a perfect time."

The 30-by-50-foot playground, purchased from Play World, is handicapped-accessible and includes a straight slide, a spiral slide, activity panels, a funnel adventure tube, two spring riders, a solar climber, a rock-climbing wall, monkey bars, a spring jumper and a loop ladder under two cabana roofs.

The equipment was ordered in early December, and the men of the church put in about 140 man-hours over the course of two months to install it, Mrs. Matthews said, noting she is grateful to the men who volunteered their time to the project.

"We think it turned out very good," she said. "It will be a great ministry tool, and the kids will love to play on it. It will encourage the children to come to church and learn about Jesus while having a safe place to play and get out their wiggles during children's church."

Church members will hide more than 1,000 candy and plastic Easter eggs for kids ages 12 and younger to find and will have drawings to give away eight to 10 prizes.

Families also can enjoy a hot dog meal and other treats at the egg hunt.

dharris@cherokeetribune.com

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