BIDDEFORD — If Google Earth had trained its satellite imagery on Biddeford’s Rotary Park on Saturday, its bird’s-eye photography would have revealed a curious sight: small colored dots freckled across rolling hills, the landscape still partially covered with snow and ice remnants from a stubborn winter.

Up close, the colored dots revealed their true identity ”“ plastic, pastel eggs, each filled with candy treasure and waiting for the outstretched arms of an eager child.

Despite gray skies and intermittent drizzle, the 2015 Easter Egg Hunt, an annual effort of the Biddeford Recreation Department, drew scores of families with the promise of prizes, games and perhaps even a glimpse of a real, live rabbit.

Rain? Who cares? The Ramunnos certainly didn’t.

“We come every year,” said Mike Ramunno, watching as his children opened their eggs inside the Teen Center. “We go to all of ’em ”“ the kids love it.”

In all, it’s the seventh year his clan have attended the event; they started coming when their oldest child, Corinne, was little more than a baby. Mike watched as his Corinne squinted and stuck out her tongue in concentration, applying just the right torque on the egg to pop it open and reveal the candy inside.

“She’s probably the most holiday-oriented child of all time,” he said, noting the blue bunny ears perched atop her head. “It doesn’t matter what it is ”“ Halloween, Easter, whatever ”“ she’s going to be dressed up for it.”

Though it was over in little more than an hour, the egg hunt was the end product of about a month of work from Recreation Department employees and various volunteers. After all, it takes time to stuff about 4,000 eggs with bite-sized goodies and scatter them throughout the humped and pitted terrain of Rotary Park.

Program Director Dan Letellier said he was impressed with how many people braved the wet and chilly conditions.

“The worst part was preparing for the weather,” he said. “But we were very happy to see this kind of a turnout. I think a lot of that has to do with people making it an annual tradition.”

Like the Emersons, who were still clad in their winter gear as they stepped around slow-melting mounds of snow to collect their bounty, Dillon and his sister Danielle clutched bulging bags filled with eggs as they headed back to the Teen Center to open them and collect their contents.

“We do it every year,” said Dillon. “The best part is the candy.”

Added his mother, Pam: “A lot of times we see our friends, too. But this is the first time we do it in the snow.”

Letellier noted that the event was a community effort, with the Heart of Biddeford helping to set up games and the Community Bicycle Center donating a couple of bikes as prizes. Members of the Biddeford High School lacrosse team even helped to scatter the eggs around the park.

For Letellier, the best part is seeing people’s faces.

“Every year, even in weather like this, you see what you’re here for,” he said.

— Jeff Lagasse is an Assistant Editor at the Journal Tribune. He can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 319 or [email protected].