Annual Easter tradition expands with inclusive egg hunt

Hundreds of kids hopped to Ober Park on March 30 for the annual “The Great Eggstravaganza” egg hunt — this year, with a new addition.

This was the first year the annual event featured a sensory-friendly egg hunt, serving kids with autism or other sensory needs by hosting a smaller group of kids and taking efforts to keep them from being overstimulated.

It was a joint effort between the Vashon Park District and the Vashon Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC), a group of parents working to make the Vashon Island School District and community more inclusive for kids with special needs.

The Park District was “incredibly gracious” in setting aside time and resources to make the sensory-friendly hunt a success, said Sara Peterson, the director of community outreach for SEPAC.

Parks provided headphones for kids who needed them, set up visual aids for nonverbal children, and kept the hunt smaller overall so it wouldn’t be as stimulating or overwhelming as the general audience hunt.

Too stimulating of an environment can trigger a fight-or-flight response for some kids, Peterson said, and with Vashon Highway right next door, the sensory-friendly hunt needed a secure safety net.

The solution: “We had an entire perimeter of volunteers securing and on lookout … to make sure that no kids were going to run away,” she said.

Along with candy, the eggs also contained toys like fidget spinners, which are popular stress-relievers.

And with many siblings invited to join in, too, the hunt gave a mixed group of kids — many with sensory needs, some without — a chance to play together as equals.

“Witnessing the children enthusiastically participating in the egg hunt and engaging with our oversized pink bunny was truly heartwarming,” Eric Wyatt, recreation manager at the Vashon Park District, said in an email.

That success was also personal for Peterson, who said this was the first egg hunt on Vashon to which she felt comfortable bringing her 5-year-old son Daxton.

“As a parent of an autistic child, I have actually never even gotten to do the Easter Egg hunt uptown, because I’ve been too scared,” she said.

But this time, with accommodations in place to keep the event calm and safe, Daxton joined in on the fun: “It was so much fun,” he said.

“It was just pure joy,” Peterson said. “… We had another kid who collected all of his eggs … opened them up, and gave them all away to different children. It was so sweet. It was such a tender group.”

Park staff and volunteers prepared 4,300 eggs total for the hunts this year, Wyatt said. This is the third year the Park District has hosted the event; it took over in 2022 after the Chamber of Commerce, which formerly ran the event, withdrew from doing so.

The general audience egg hunt, which took place after the sensory-friendly hunt, drew 200 or more kids.

The Park District will continue holding the sensory-friendly egg hunt for future Easters, Wyatt said, and the district is committed to working with SEPAC to make its other activities more inclusive, too.

That this event is “just the beginning” for inclusive-minded community programming is exciting and inspiring for Peterson, who viewed it as a sign that “we’re on the right track.”

“I think historically, we’ve kind of put people with special needs in a box, as a society, and set them aside as a separate entity,” Peterson said.

But creating inclusive opportunities for kids makes the entire community — neurodiverse and neurotypical — stronger and more engaged, she said.

“We’re going to create leaders that are empathetic to all abilities,” Peterson said. “And most of the kids at that egg hunt are very self aware, and intelligent. And these are people that will be leaders also. … So I think it’s important they see themselves as valued within our small community.”