Dozens of kids and their families came out to collect colorful eggs at a special Easter egg hunt in Muscatine. The Easter activity is for kids with special needs.
Kami Olmstead and Karen Holladay started this tradition nine years ago after facing struggles with their own special needs children.
“We’ve experienced with our kids what it’s like to be left out. So they’re not left out any more.” Olmstead said.
“It’s worth it just to see the joy on the children’s faces, and the joy on the parent’s faces. They enjoy it just as much,” Holladay said.
While hunting Easter eggs isn’t uncommon for this time of year, without this hunt many of these kids wouldn’t be able to enjoy this Easter tradition.
Mother and Grandmother to special needs kids, Teri Carson said, “Aaron would often get run over at a typical Easter egg hunt, so he can come here and it’s a little slower motion, we feel safe, and he looks forward to this every year.”
Olmstead says the hunt is different than others, “It’s a lot less stress here because we don’t have all the commotion, the screaming, the running, trampling over each other like a traditional Easter egg hunt. They can just go at their own pace.”
Parent Julie Frye says it’s a safe way for her daughter to enjoy the holiday, “A place where she can be safe, and still be able to do the Easter egg hunt like other kids and have fun.”
Putting on this egg hunt takes a lot of time and community support.The prizes in the thousands of plastic eggs are donations from local businesses and community members.
That community support means so much more to the families than just candy and toys.
“They have a lot struggles every single day of their lives that they have to work through, so having something like this it’s just very uplifting for them, and lets us know the community cares about everybody,” Carson said.
