Children Find Hard-Boiled Fun on White House Lawn

--Thousands of excited children scrambled to roll Easter eggs across the White House South Lawn in what has become a Washington tradition. With the White House magnolia trees in bloom on an unseasonable 80-degree day, about 30,000 children and adults joined in the carnival-like atmosphere of the 108th anniversary of the egg roll, the biggest public event at the White House and the only one held on its spacious grounds. In addition to the Easter bunny, children were entertained by a dizzying array of clowns, bands, puppet shows, mimes and cartoon characters. Celebrities, including magician Doug Henning and Olympic gymnast Bart Conner, were available to sign the wooden eggs children found in the egg hunt. Prizes were given to winners of the egg roll, in which children attempted to be the first to push a dyed, hard-boiled egg about 10 yards along the grass with a large spoon. As 8-year-old Kim Kleiman of Iron Mountain, Mich., clutched two eggs, her mother, Kristen, expressed amazement at the size of the event. “We didn’t expect it was this big a spectacle,” she said. “We thought it was senators’ and representatives’ grandchildren that got in.” President and Mrs. Reagan were vacationing in California.

--Farm Aid, a group of country and rock stars trying to help distressed farmers, donated $500,000 to the National Council of Churches. The grant, the fourth from the celebrity organization, is being distributed to 31 groups that work with farm families in 36 states. To date, Farm Aid has made nearly $1 million in contributions to the national council. “The rural crisis continues to worsen across the country,” said Mary Ellen Lloyd, director of the council’s Domestic Hunger and Poverty Office. The National Council of Churches is glad to be able to continue to work with Farm Aid in the disbursement of funds for food for farmers and in encouraging the release of funds for rural development.” The latest $500,000 donation from Farm Aid will be used to feed financially strapped farmers, council officials said.

--A million-dollar winner in a dog food contest says her mutt is “spoiled rotten” and won’t get a dime. Cecilia McCaskey, of Waynesboro, Miss., who received the first of 20 checks for $50,000 from Alpo last week, said she’s not spending any of it on 10-year-old Stray. And she said she’s not going to let her husband retire early, either. “I don’t want him hanging around the house. The dog and the kids are enough,” she said.