President Obama and
First Lady Obama will greet the guests at the 134th annual White House Easter Egg Roll today at 10:30 AM. Though it's not *officially* an Egg Roll until the First Lady appears with the
Easter Bunny, guests will already have been playing on the very decorated South Lawn for more than three hours. This year’s theme, “Let’s Go, Let’s Play, Let’s Move!,” spotlights the Let's Move! campaign, focusing "on promoting health and wellness and encouraging children to lead healthy and active lives." The White House will livestream performances and events all day at
whitehouse.gov/live. Follow the action on Twitter with
@LetsMove and
@ObamaFoodorama with the hashtag
#EasterEggRoll.
There will be celebrity entertainers and
celebrity chefs giving cooking demonstrations in the Play With Your Food area, which surrounds the Kitchen Garden and features a mini-farmers market, and fooducation booths. Sports stars leading fitness activities in the Eggtivity Zone, singers will perform on the Rockin' Egg Roll Stage (
Janelle Monae,
Cody Simpson,
Zendaya,
China Ann McClain and
the McClain Sisters), and A-list actors will read kids books on the Storytime Stage (
Julianne Moore, Forest Whitaker,
Bella Thorne).
About 35,000 guests will fill the South Lawn for the biggest and longest Roll in White House history, the fourth of the Administration. Tickets have been distributed to guests from all 50 states, and they will attend in 5 different groups of 6,000. They will be allowed to spend two full hours on the South Lawn; the White House has extended the Roll timing "even further than previous years," with a start time of 7:30 AM and an end time of 6:20 PM.
Check out the Easter Egg Roll Fact Sheet. [PDF]
From the White House, the official Easter Egg Roll announcement:
The White House announces the program, activities, and talent line-up for the 2012 White House Easter Egg Roll, a tradition in its 134th year.This year’s theme is “Let’s Go, Let’s Play, Let’s Move!” The theme focuses on promoting health and wellness and encouraging children to lead healthy and active lives. This is a central part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative to solve the problem of childhood obesity.
The Easter Egg Roll is the largest annual public event at the White House.
30,000 people from all 50 states and the District of Columbia have received tickets to the event.
For the third year in a row, tickets were distributed online. Members of the public from all over the country had the opportunity to enter an online lottery for a chance to win tickets to the event. Over 200,000 tickets were requested via the online lottery, and guests from all 50 states and the District of Columbia were selected as winners.
The timing for this year’s event has been extended even further than previous years, with a start time of 7:30 AM and an end time of 6:20 PM. 30,000 tickets have been distributed in 5 different groups. Each group of 6,000 guests will be able to spend two full hours on the South Lawn.
The Ellipse will have an entertainment pavilion. Guests are able to enjoy musical acts and games as they prepare to enter the South Lawn. DJs and the official Emcee of the Easter Egg Roll will be on the Ellipse welcoming guests in, spinning music, and getting the guests excited about their two hours on the South Lawn!
The entire Easter Egg Roll event, including all of the headliner music acts and Storytime Stage readers, will be broadcast live on WhiteHouse.gov/live. A full schedule will be posted on the morning of April 25th so people from across the country will be able to participate in the event.
With the “Let’s Go, Let’s Play, Let’s Move!” theme, all of the activities on the South Lawn promote healthy and active living. The activities include obstacle courses, dancing, playing sports with professional athletes, and of course, the traditional egg roll. The full list of events is below:
*An Easter egg hunt & the traditional Easter egg roll
*Rockin’ Egg Roll Stage - Live musical performances for all ages.
*Storytime Stage - Celebrities bring books to life.
*Hop To It! - An instructional dance party on the South Lawn! Get up and go jump rope, hula hoop, dance and more.
*Eggtivity Zone Obstacle Course - A series of obstacles and drills, including soccer, football and baseball obstacle courses.
*Basketball and Tennis- Get hands-on training from basketball and tennis pros on the President’s court!
*Yoga Garden- Come try yoga with professional instructors.
*Eggspress Yourself - An arts and crafts workshop filled with egg dying, egg decorating, face painting and more.
*Play with your Food - Kids’ Kitchen, Make-your-own Garden, Family Farmer’s Market, Buzzing about Bees, and more led by the White House chefs and celebrity guest chefs. This activity center is built around the White House Kitchen Garden.
Talent Line-Up
Janelle Monae, Cody Simpson, Rachel Crow, Sesame Street, Zendaya, China Ann McClain and the McClain Sisters will perform on the Rockin’ Egg Roll Stage. Rachel Crow will sing the National Anthem.
Reading on the Storytime Stage will be Robin Roberts, Julianne Moore, Jeff Kinney from Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Etan Thomas, Forest Whitaker and Bella Thorne.
Chefs Andrew Zimmern; Richard Blais; Marcus Samuelsson; Paul Qui; Carla Hall; Pat and Gina Neely; Bryan Voltaggio and the White House Chefs will prepare healthy eating demonstrations in the Play with your Food station.
In the Eggtivity Zone, professional players and coaches from professional sports teams will teach kids how to play sports and show kids easy, fun ways to stay active and fit.
Athletes participating in the Eggtivity Zone include Chanda Rubin and Vania King of the Women’s Tennis Association; Dedreck Etan Thomas, Bruce Bowen and Nick Young of the National Basketball Association; US Olympian gymnast Dominique Dawes; US Olympian figure skater Michelle Kwan; the National Football League’s Brian Orakpo, Ovie Mughelli, Qadry Ismail, Lorenzo Alexander, Derrick Dockery and Antwaan Randle El; Tamika Catchings, Swin Cash, Alana Beard and Crystal Langstrom of the Women’s National Basketball Association; Dr. Jayne Greenberg, Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, Cornell McClellan, Curtis Pride, and Donna Richardson Joyner of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports; Angela Hucles, Becky Sauerbrunn and Lori Lindsey of the US Women’s National Soccer Team; Sheanon Williams, Zac MacMath, Ben Olsen, Chris Pontius and Robbie Russell of Major League Soccer; former NBA players Mitch Richmond and Daryll Dawkins and the Harlem Globertrotters’ Herb Lang, Fatima Maddox, Jacob Tucker and Wun Versher, and star trainer of the The Biggest Loser, Bob Harper.
USTA Quick Start Courts will feature tennis greats, Chandra Rubin, Vania King, Katrina Adams, Taylor Dent, Bethanie Mattek-Sand and Christina McHale.
Michael Chang who was the youngest ever male to win a Grand Slam singles title at the age of 17 will also be teaching kids the fundamentals of tennis along with 2010 men's junior US Open champion Jack Sock, former Grand Slam singles champion Andy Roddick and former Number 1 ranked in the world and winner of 18 Grand Slam championships, Chris Evert.
Yoga Garden will feature long-time professional Yoga instructor, Leah Cullis.
The Hop To It Stage offers a variety of interactive dance, sports, and other physical fun, including Choreographer Rosero McCoy and Perry the Platypus/Agent P, Kidtribe , Hip Hop Public, Health with DJ Jazzy Jeff, Chicago Ultimate Tumblers.
Ballou Senior High School Marching Band and Drum Corps will perform on the South Lawn, as well as help guide the visitors on and off of the South Lawn. The United States Marine Corps Band will perform again this year.
DJ Willy WOW! And Little Beat, the #1 Chinchilla! & Washington Sports Club's Zumba Team will perform on the ellipse. The official Emcee of the 2011 White House Easter Egg Roll is Tommy McFly. He will introduce acts on the music stage and get everyone excited about the different Egg Roll activities to make for another wonderful Easter Egg Roll.
This Year’s Costume Characters
Fairy Twinkle Toes – AbraKidabra – Big Green Rabbit – Captain Planet – Bugs Bunny – Daffy Duck
Finn & Jake – Scooby Doo – Alex the Lion from Madagascar 3 – Penguins of Madagascar – Po the Panda Miffy the Bunny – Katsuma and Poppet from Mushi Monsters – Wow Wow Wubbsy
Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street – Arthur – Buddy from Dinosaur Train – Cat in the Hat
Clifford the Big Red Dog – Curious George – Elmo – Hooper from PBS Kids – Martha from Martha Speaks Princess Presto from Super WHY! – Ruff Ruffman from Fetch! – Sid the Science Kid – Super WHY! Wonder Red from Super WHY! – Word Girl – Woofster from Super WHY! – The Smurfs
Charlie Brown and Snoopy – Power Panther – Slapshot and Air Slapshot
George, Tom, Abe and Teddy from the Racing Presidents – Screech – Topspin and Slice
Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head – Witzy Duck from Suzy’s Zoo – Power Rangers – Smokey Bear
Babar and Badou – Doki the Dog – Papa, Mama and Junior Bunny – Peter Rabbit – Spot – Maisy Nutbrown Hare – Sponge Bob – Dora the Explorer – Diego – Spider-Man – Iron Man – Thor
Captain America – Yoohoo & Chewoo from Yoohoo and Friends – Alvin and the Chipmunks – Clicky
To learn more about the Easter Egg Roll visit www.whitehouse.gov/eastereggroll. Tune in for live streams from the South Lawn all day on April 9th, 2012 on WhiteHouse.gov/live. You can also join the conversation online using the hashtag #EasterEggRoll and get the latest updates by visiting Let’s Move! on Twitter and Facebook.
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*Photo by Chuck Kennedy/White House
Even First Dog Bo gets in on the dramatic literary action...
After the President and the girls left to hit the basketball court, Mrs. Obama stayed on the Storytime Stage and gave an engaging solo reading of The Little Mouse and The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Hungry Bear, by authors Don Wood and Audrey Wood. (Above: Mrs. Obama reading solo)
