As spring nears, more people will be visiting local city-run community centers, possibly for the first time since major operational changes took effect. At Hiawatha Community Center this past Sunday, we talked with Parks’ Lakema Bell, who wants to remind you the changes come with a regional management structure change – she is one of two senior employees running this regional group, and they request “patience” while everything shakes out. Center hours are listed here. One BIG change will be noticed by hundreds of families this spring – no more individual community-center egg hunts like this one:

(Hiawatha 2010 egg-hunt photo by Jason Grotelueschen for WSB)
Lakema tells us that the former Southwest Community Center, which is now a Teen Life Center and future Neighborhood Service Center (we reported last month on the timetable for the NSC to move in), will play host to one major egg-hunt-and-more event this spring that will replace multiple smaller events. It’ll be a regional event on April 7th at the Southwest site, with staggered egg hunts for various age groups – on the athletic fields around the complex if the weather’s OK, indoors if not. They’re planning to make a festival of it by including a 1K fun run and a musical performance by West Seattle-based kindie-rock superstar Caspar Babypants. Full details are still being finalized – right now it looks like 11:30 am-3 pm with $5/person admission – but since it’s just two months away, you might want to mark that calendar now.