Patrick Mahomes appeared at Truman Library’s first Easter egg roll. It’s finally back

The first time they hosted an Easter egg roll modeled after those big White House events, the folks at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum invited the young backup quarterback from the Kansas City Chiefs to read a book to the children.

He rolled up to the library in Independence by himself. No pomp. No circumstance. The kids sat on the ground in front of him and listened while their parents took photos with their cellphones.

Just a few months later that young man in a red shirt, Patrick Mahomes

, became starting quarterback, and the rest is NFL history — three Super Bowl wins in five years.

The book he read to the children that day?

“Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” by Dr. Seuss.

Patrick Mahomes at the first Harry’s Hop ’n Hunt at the Truman Library. Ed Autry
Patrick Mahomes at the first Harry’s Hop ’n Hunt at the Truman Library. Ed Autry
Mahomes helped launch a tradition at the museum.

In 2018, “the people who were here decided an Easter egg roll would be cool, different from just a normal Easter egg hunt. And because we’re a presidential library it has that tie to the White House,” said Azalea Michel-Whitley, the public programs officer.

Hundreds of kids and their families showed up for Harry’s Hop ‘n Hunt in 2018 and 2019.

Then, in 2020, COVID shut down the fun.

But the egg roll returns Saturday, an event so big it has three sponsors: the Truman Library Institute, the city of Independence and the Independence Square Association.

No egg rolls while people starved
President Rutherford B. Hayes presided over the first White House Easter Egg Roll in 1878, according to the White House History website.