It’s still dark when the first attendees start arriving at the Great Lawn on Easter morning. By 6:30 AM, folding chairs are unfolded, blankets are spread on the grass, and the ocean breeze is doing exactly what you’d want it to do as the eastern sky starts to lighten.
This year’s Pompano Beach Easter Sunrise Service — a 50-year tradition hosted by the Kiwanis Club of Pompano Beach — brought several hundred residents and visitors to the beachside Great Lawn on Sunday, April 5 at 6:45 AM. Dr. Ron Harvey delivered the message, and live music carried the program through the first golden minutes of sunrise.
Why people come back every year
For a community of beachgoers, snowbirds, and locals from a dozen different congregations, the Sunrise Service has become one of those rare events that doesn’t fit neatly into any one denomination’s calendar. It’s interfaith in spirit, ecumenical in practice, and the only requirement is showing up before the sun does.
The Kiwanis volunteers had everything organized by 6 AM — sound system tested, programs handed out, hot coffee available at the back of the lawn for the early arrivals who came up shivering. By the time Dr. Harvey took the microphone, the lawn was full and the ocean was the color of polished steel.
The setting
There’s a reason this service has lasted half a century in Pompano. The Great Lawn sits on the sand line just south of the Fisher Family Pier — you can see the silhouette of the pier on your left, the open Atlantic in front of you, and the early commuters along Pompano Beach Boulevard behind. As the sun crests the horizon, the entire crowd goes quiet on instinct.
Live music — a small brass and choral ensemble this year — carried the response hymns. The closing benediction, by tradition, ends right as the sun fully clears the water.
If you want to go next year
- Where: Pompano Beach Great Lawn (just south of the Fisher Family Pier)
- When: Easter Sunday at 6:45 AM
- Cost: Free; donations to the Kiwanis Club appreciated
- What to bring: A blanket, a folding chair, a light jacket, and patience for the inevitable parking shuffle on Pompano Beach Boulevard
If you missed it this year, the Kiwanis Club typically posts the next year’s date by mid-March. Pencil it in — there are very few free, beachfront, hour-long traditions in South Florida that are this consistently moving.
