SALISBURY, Md.- The Wicomico County Recreation & Parks along with the Salisbury Jaycees hosted an Adaptive Easter egg hunt Friday. Easter is around the corner and that means many kids will participate in Easter eggs hunts across the nation. Here on Delmarva, one egg hunt in Salisbury allows kids with special needs to enjoy the Easter festivities as well. Several fields were used at the Henry S. Parker Athletic Complex each of which accommodates one person's needs. Emily Fitzgerald is here with her nephew who has autism. She says this event gave him and other kids the chance to enjoy an Easter egg hunt.
“I think it’s a great, really great idea”, Fitzgerald said. You know all the, especially all the special needs kids, they can be able to get all the Easter eggs, you know at their own pace and everything.”
Jamie Nichols with Wicomico County Recreation & Parks said this was the ideal location for an event focused on inclusion. The athletic complex is already geared toward adaptiveness and inclusion.
“And it perfects out her as well being at Parker with the inclusiveness we have sensory pods in the back”, Nichols said. “We have a quiet room for anybody that gets over-stimulated or needs some space.”
The event was canceled for the last two years due to COVID but organizers like Sam Marshall are “egg”-cited (excited) to bring the event back to the community that needed a accommodating Easter egg hunt.
"We do things that are really accommodating like for example we have the beeping eggs we have the grabbers for the kids with wheelchairs they can go in a grab so if those”, Marshall said. “I thought that was really cool from an outsider's perspective because I've never done it before."
And there were so many other activities for the kids to enjoy. Heather Shrieves and her daughter enjoyed many other activities that were offered.
"She did the egg hunt and got all her prizes and we've played a couple of other games”, Shrieves said. “They have a duck pond and hula hoops and bowling. We hope they keep doing things like this. It's great for the community, it's great for all the kids, it brings them all together.”
Other accommodations included beeping eggs and eggs placed at different heights. And the egg hunt wasn't the only activity, they also had face painting and many other outdoor activities. Eighty-five kids were signed up for this years event and the hope for an even bigger event next year.