Kelly Jenkins and her son, Beau, 3, both of Dallas, pose for a photo Sunday at Northeast Sight Services’ annual beeping Easter egg hunt at the Holiday Inn in Wilkes-Barre - East Mountain
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
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Before the egg hunt kids got the chance to try out a bunch of different activities like coloring Easter themed print outs.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
“Yellow is our favorite color,” said Megan Ruseskas, of Swoyersville, after her son, Hudson, 2, managed to snag not one, but two yellow plastic Easter eggs during the hunt. Behind them stands Megan’s husband, Luke Ruseskas, and their other son, Archer, 4.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
Kelly Jenkins instructs her three-year-old son, Beau, how to knock the pyramid of cans over.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
The eggs are brightly colored and emit a high pitched beeping sound, which helps children who are blind or visually impaired locate where they are hidden. The beeping egg is an important education tool that teachers kids mobility and location skills.
WILKES-BARRE — With Easter right around the corner one local organization this weekend gave kids who are blind or visually impaired the chance to participate in a holiday tradition at an event tailored to their needs.
Northeast Sight Services, in partnership with Community Services for the Blind, hosted its annual beeping Easter egg hunt Sunday at the Holiday Inn Wilkes-Barre – East Mountain, where about 25 children, along with their siblings and other family members, enjoyed some holiday-themed games and activities that were both fun and accessible.
Additionally, the event also featured face painting, cookie decorating and coloring, plus a visit from the Easter Bunny himself.
The hunt is one of many group events offered through Northeast Sight Services’ Insight Kids Club, which offers monthly programs and activities for blind or visually impaired children geared toward connecting them with “a network of support with peers who are living with the same challenges.”
According to the nonprofit, the beeping egg is valuable educational tool that helps teach children who are blind or visually impaired how to locate and retrieve items. It also teaches independence, mobility and location skills.
Staff members and volunteers were on hand to assist the families, keeping the event well organized and on schedule and when they were done hunting, the kids exchanged their eggs for a bag of Easter candy.
Saturday’s gloomy weather thankfully disappeared in time for the Sunday festivities and the sun shone bright on an otherwise brisk spring afternoon.
Megan Ruseskas and her husband, Luke, both of Swoyersville, attended the event for the second year along with their two sons, Hudson, 2, and Archer, 4.
Ruseskas spent much of the first half of the event chasing around her 2-year-old, who was intent on making several laps around the lobby.
“It’s so much fun. They do such a nice job. There’s entertainment for everybody,” she said.
Hudson is still too young to participate in some of the other programs offered through Insight, but Ruseskas said that the egg hunt is not only age appropriate, but fun and inclusive for her whole family.
“I like that they include the siblings,” she said.
Kelly Jenkins, of Dallas, said she and her family learned about the event from her 3-year-old son Beau’s vision teacher.
“We were looking for opportunities to get him around other peers similar to him and just the fact that they’re making it accessible to him is awesome,” Jenkins said.
Beau, along with his brother, Boyd, have Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), a rare type of genetic eye disorder that causes severe vision loss at birth.
“It’s progressive. They’re both legally blind, but they’re expected to lose more as they get older,” Jenkins explained.
She’s grateful for events like the ones hosted by Northeast Sight Services because it makes her family, specifically her children, feel like they are part of a community.
“He gets to be a normal kid like everyone else, just with some adaptions.”