Andy Boast from The Wilberforce Trust wrote us a guest blog about an Easter Egg hunt with a difference.
The Wilberforce Trust is a charity based in York that can trace its roots to the Yorkshire School for the Blind, opened in 1883. They provide high quality support, training, and care services for people in Yorkshire with visual and hearing impairments. Traditionally they have focussed on providing such services to adults, however there is a new initiative to offer activities to children, and to kick things off the Trust has created an exciting event for Easter.
A fond Easter tradition for many children is the Easter egg hunt, where eager kids search for carefully hidden chocolate eggs.
But how could an egg hunt be made inclusive for blind or visually impaired children? By cleverly creating eggs with an audible beeping noise, the Wiberforce Trust have found the answer.
Samantha Scholey, Trust Operations Manager, explains, “We’ve created plastic eggs with a device inside that beeps. On the day of the egg hunt we will hide them, so the children can locate the eggs by the sound, collect them up in baskets and then bring them back to us to exchange for chocolate eggs.”
The event has already created a lot of interest from kind hearted individuals and local businesses, with donations of chocolate eggs flooding in, as well as technical help in the manufacturing of the electronic devices that make the beeping sound, and the plastic eggs to contain them.
Samantha commented, ‘this is a really exciting event for the Wilberforce Trust as it is our first children’s event. We are thrilled to be able to tweak a traditional Easter activity to make it inclusive for children with a visual impairment.’
The event is open to any child with a visual impairment, and if they have sighted siblings who don’t want to miss out on the fun, they can join in on the day too by wearing a blindfold.
The event promises to be a real family fun day out, and will give the children the opportunity to experience an Easter tradition that they never have before.
The Egg Hunt will take place on Easter Sunday – 21st April from 10am until noon at the Huntington Sports and Social Club. For further details contact the Wilberforce Trust on 01904 760037.
