Easter Egg Hunt in Kaunakakai

Photo By Léo Azambuja

By Léo Azambuja

The Easter bunny almost stole the scene, even if unintentionally, by bringing thousands of Easter eggs filled with candy to town. After all, who doesn’t have a sweet tooth? But it was Jesus’ day. So, just like in the last 20 centuries, the day was all about Jesus’ sacrifices and all-welcoming love. 

 “The whole reason to celebrate Easter is Jesus,” King’s Chapel Molokai pastor Robert Sahagun told a crowd of about 500 people, among keiki and their families, at the 2026 Community Easter Egg Hunt at Kaunakakai Elementary School field March 28. 

“We do celebrate with eggs,” he said. “But let me tell you something; it is about Easter that Jesus came to search for us.”

Everything came together for Molokai’s largest egg hunt. After two back-to-back weekends of some of the heaviest rains that battered the Islands in 20 years, the sun was out last Saturday. The school’s field, which flooded greatly during the storm, dried just in time for the event. 

“I felt like the community needed this event, especially the kids,” said pastor Lani Sahagun, Robert Sahagun’s wife.

Photo by Marissa Motas

There were 337 people — parents and keiki — who registered for the egg hunt, plus another couple hundred just enjoying the event. About 75 people volunteered through King’s Chapel to organize and run the event.

“We just want to bless the community. We have these community events twice a year, which would be our egg hunt and our Halloween,” Lani Sahagun said.

In between performances on the event’s stage, organizers picked tickets and distributed prizes such as bodyboards and gift certificates from Take’s and Molokai Pizza Café, plus other certificates to different businesses purchased by private donors. 

About an hour into the event, Robert Sahagun led a last prayer, calling many kids to the stage front just before the egg hunt. There were five egg-hunt arenas for five different age groups: zero-to-two years old, three-to-four years old, kindergarten-to-second grade, third-to-fourth grade, and fifth-to-sixth grade. 

“Are you guys ready to hunt some eggs?” he asked the kids, who answered with a loud and long, “Yeah.”

Each arena had a single golden egg — an egg with a winning ticket inside. After scrambling to collect as many eggs as possible — there were 8,000 eggs — the kids opened them hoping to find the coveted golden egg, which they exchanged for a basket full of candy and gift certificates. 

King’s Chapel has three branches on Molokai; Manaʻe, Kaunakakai and Maunaloa. They have been holding Easter egg hunts for more than 30 years. At times, they held three egg hunts on the island, one on each branch. For the last three years, they have been holding the egg hunt in Maunaloa, but this year they decided to move it to Kaunakakai.

“Happy resurrection day. Jesus loves everybody,” Lani Sahagun said was her Easter message to Molokai, adding Jesus died on the cross so our sins can be forgiven and we can all have eternal life.

King’s Chapel in Kaunakakai will hold a Good Friday service at noon, and an Easter Sunday service at 10:30 a.m. They will also hold Easter Sunday services at Kilohana School and Maunaloa Outfitter Center at 9 a.m.