PORTSMOUTH — Three-year-old William Marshall had a field day at Saturday morning’s egg hunt at the Melville School playground.

As soon as he’d deposit an egg into a bag held by his babysitter, Lexi Alvanas, the toddler found another one just inches away. And on and on it went for William, who couldn’t stop smiling.

Due to the inclement weather Saturday, William had less competition that usual at the ninth annual egg hunt, which is organized by some of Portsmouth High School’s best and brightest students.

“We’re on the student council and we run this event every year,” said Jane Kaull, a senior who was huddled under an umbrella along with co-leader Laura Heffernan a few minutes before the event began at 10 a.m. 

“This year, we’re also in NHS (the National Honor Society), so for our leadership project we organized this event. We got flyers out to the elementary schools and tried to get kids to come to this,” Jane said.

And how many eggs did they use?

“We ordered about 2,500, but we put out only 750 just because not as many kids would come because of the weather,” said Laura.

The eggs were filled with stickers, temporary tattoos and bite-sized candies such as Tootsie Rolls. 

The rain may have kept a few kids away, but it didn’t damper anyone’s spirits. William certainly wouldn’t have missed the fun, said Lexi, who’s also a member of the student council.

“He was here last year, too,” she said.