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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release April 4, 1994
                       REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
                            AND FIRST LADY
                          AT EASTER EGG ROLL

The South Lawn

9:45 A.M. EDT

MRS. CLINTON: Well, welcome everyone to the Annual Easter Egg Roll and the celebration of Easter and Spring here at the White House. And we want to thank all of you for coming, and we especially want to thank parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and big brothers and big sisters and friends for bringing all of the children here today.

And I hope you have a chance to look at the program for all of the events because we not only have the events for some of the children here on the South Lawn, but we have lots of events going on all day right behind you over by the Washington Monument on the Ellipse. So there will be children over there who will be coming here and we hope that you all will have a chance to go there to enjoy everything that has been planned for today.

We are also very excited to thank all of the people who helped put this on, and they are all listed in here. So many people have worked so long and so hard to make this such a special day for all of us. And I particularly want to thank Robyn Dickey of the White House staff who coordinated all of this effort. I am so grateful to her and to everybody who worked to make this possible.

One of the things that we do at the Easter Egg Roll is to continue the tradition that started way, way back when President Madison was President of the United States, and his wife, Dolley Madison started the Easter Egg Roll. And we think that it's wonderful that you can be doing things that children did nearly 200 years ago -- about 180 or 190 years ago -- and every year since then. And so it's my real pleasure to introduce the President who is following in the tradition of all the other presidents to be able to kick off the celebration of the Easter Egg Roll -- President Clinton. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I am so glad to see all of you here. I woke up before dawn this morning, and when I got out just at dawn I already saw the Easter Bunnies out here walking around plotting their strategies for the day and getting ready.

I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard on this, and all the people who helped to sponsor it. But mostly, I just want to welcome all the boys and girls here, all the families here, and to thank all of you for being a part of this wonderful American tradition. I hope you have a terrific time today. I assure you that we're having a terrific time having you here. And I think we ought to start. Are you ready to start?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Now we've got to get everybody lined up. Line them up for the first roll. Now everybody, let me just say, everybody who is here will get a -- all the children who are here, not every adult, all the children who are here will get a souvenir egg. Okay? And some of them were signed not just by the First Lady and me -- some were signed by Socks. They're more valuable.

Are we ready? All right, when I blow the whistle we're all going to start. Okay? So when I blow the whistle, all of you cheer the kids on who are over there in the roll. Have we got a deal? All right let's go. One, two, three, go!

END9:47 A.M. EDT