Find Your Purpose egg hunt and music festival returns Saturday to Westminster

Described as one of the most diverse and inclusive events in Carroll County, the free annual Find Your Purpose Easter egg hunt and music festival returns Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m. at Westminster City Park, behind 11 Longwell Ave.

“It’s unlike anything that happens in Westminster because we bring all of the communities together,” said Billy Lyve, founder of the nonprofit Find Your Purpose, which aims to empower local youths via experiential learning and entrepreneurship opportunities.

Music and dance performances will begin after the egg hunt, which is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. Lyve said it is likely to only take a few minutes for hundreds of children to find around 9,000 candy-filled eggs hidden in the park.

This year’s music festival will offer more robust live entertainment than ever before, Lyve said, featuring performances from The Harbor Boys, a reggae-rock band with hip-hop elements, dance group Project C Studios, and rap/hip-hop artist JayMoney Hackett, who will also host the event.

Each performing artist is uniquely connected to the Carroll County community. Several members of The Harbor Boys are Westminster natives, Hackett has performed with Lyve many times, and Project C is a dance studio in Westminster that offers classes and other programs.

Performance equipment will be provided by Baltimore Soundstage, a new sponsor for the event. Lyve said more sponsors amped up their contribution this year, to help make the event great.

“So many people stepped up that I wasn’t expecting to step up,” Lyve said, “and that has helped me make the event even better.”

This year’s egg hunt and music festival will also feature vendors, children’s craft tables, a photo booth, and pickup sports games, including basketball, Lyve said. The event will be held unless the weather is especially severe.

Lyve said it can be difficult to estimate how many people will attend. Last year about 750 people attended, which is roughly double the attendance the egg hunt has garnered in recent years.

“This is one of the most diverse and inclusive events that brings the entire community, gathered from all walks of life,” Lyve said, It’s centered around music and just fun.”

The first iteration of the organization’s egg hunt in 2008 was attended by eight kids, on an unseasonably cold day. Lyve said he re-evaluated the event, and drew around 100 children at the next egg hunt. The event’s popularity has only grown since then.

“We kind of started from the bottom, for real,” Lyve said. “We started from nothing and grew this into something way beyond belief — and some of the kids that were in the first hunt are the ones that are helping me run this hunt.”

The egg hunt’s popularity has grown largely through word-of-mouth, Lyve said. Locals affiliated with vendors and performers, those with ties to Lyve’s philanthropic or musical projects, and walk-ups from the community who catch wind of good music and a fun time, are all likely to attend.

“Every year that we do this and we grow, it does wonders for our mission,” Lyve said, “because the biggest part of our mission is bringing everybody together — all communities — and being really inclusive. This is the event that shows what we’re about every year, and this is one of our most talked-about events.”

Lyve said he is expecting a crowd at least as big as last year’s egg hunt and music festival. About 70% of the event’s attendees were children last year, he added.

“We’re grassroots organization with limited funding and we’re doing amazing things, spectacular things with what we have,” Lyve said. “The more people see what we’re doing with that, we will get more people behind us, to where we’re able to do bigger things— and major things. The biggest push with Find Your Purpose now, is we want people to take note of what we’re doing, because I feel like we can do a lot.”

Find Your Purpose was the only nonprofit business to be selected as one of five finalists vying for a $10,000 grand prize in the 12th annual Carroll Biz Challenge in 2023. The contest is run by the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce as a way to showcase local entrepreneurs and give them an opportunity to pitch their new business ideas.