

			   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

