Megan Holt watches as her young son Louis grabs a plastic egg affixed with ribbon leading up to a helium balloon. It’s his first Easter egg hunt, and Holt said she didn’t expect to find one accessible for Louis who uses a walker to get around. 

“He loves to walk around and he loves kids, so this is amazing. It's nonjudgmental, which is huge. I usually get a lot of people just staring,” Holt said. 

The youngster was among several who spent the morning on March 23 having fun collecting brightly colored eggs and getting toys at the Inclusive Easter Egg Hunt at Cedar Palace Medical Center in Columbia Falls. It’s the fourth year for the event hosted by Healthy Beginnings Pediatric Therapy. 

“We really are just passionate about allowing opportunities for kids of every ability, and we want to make things accessible for every single kid,” Community Outreach Coordinator Cara Rathke said of the egg hunt.  

The Kalispell pediatric center provides holistic care for children up to age 18 with developmental needs, including evaluations and consultations along with speech, occupational and physical therapy services. 

For kids with developmental needs, a typical Easter egg hunt may not be accessible, says Rathke. They are held on uneven, grassy areas with a large crowd of kids running to grab as many eggs as possible. This could be an overload for kids with sensory processing sensitivity, while others may not be able to join in with the search due to mobility issues or poor vision. 

On this day, eggs are placed in easily visible areas, along with set out on evenly landscaped areas and within reach of sidewalks. 

To make the hunt inclusive, therapy center staff put out helium balloons tied to eggs to make them easier to grab for children who have impaired mobility. Chirping eggs were set out for kids with vision challenges. Eggs were also filled with sensory-friendly toys, giving kids with food allergies or intolerances a chance to feel excited about opening eggs.  

Kayla Parsons said her two daughters started going to Healthy Beginnings six months ago, one in speech therapy and both in occupational therapy. They’ve never really gone out for an Easter egg hunt, but they like their therapist and decided to come give it a try. 

Her daughters are among the familiar faces for staff, who after a morning of setting up the egg hunt in blistery cold winds, stand back and get to watch kids participate in a classic childhood experience.

“It's just really fun to see the kids from the community just getting out and being able to have a fun experience picking up eggs and, you know, just have a little fun environment,” speech therapist Jaime Morelli said.

Erin Hoch watched her son Jaxen Flores play with friends before the official start to the hunt. He had been talking about it for days and was immediately busy chasing around someone he’s friends with from baseball. 

Flores uses a wheelchair and has been doing speech and eating therapy at Healthy Beginnings since he was nine months old. It’s their first time out to the inclusive Easter egg hunt and he was having fun right off the bat.

“We need more things like this in our valley because we have a lot of kids here that could use something like this,” Hoch said. 

In addition to the annual egg hunt, Healthy Beginnings staff have other outreach efforts to help children in the community with special needs. 

The center hosts parent cafe support groups, a sensory-friendly photos with Santa event, as well as developmental playgroups and classes through their Pay It Forward initiative. The initiative also includes developmental screenings for preschools and daycares, training for healthcare professionals and educators, resources and scholarships for qualifying patients and other inclusive events for kids in the community. 

“We want to create inclusive events to foster mutual respect, empathy and kindness in our community … We hope we can inspire others to create safe spaces for the conversation around inclusion and find ways to invite all kids into our community activities,” Rathke said.

Learn more about Healthy Beginnings Pediatric Therapy at www.mtbeginnings.com/.

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4433 or by emailing tinman@dailyinterlake.com. 

    Jenni Kingan, owner of Healthy Beginnings Physical Therapy, opens an egg containing a toy car for a child during an Inclusive Easter Egg Hunt for kids with low vision, sensory or wheelchair and walker accessibility needs hosted by Healthy Beginnings Pediatric Therapy in Columbia Falls on Saturday, March 23. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Jaxen Flores picks up eggs with his mother Erin Hoch during an Inclusive Easter Egg Hunt for kids with low vision, sensory or wheelchair and walker accessibility needs hosted by Healthy Beginnings Pediatric Therapy in Columbia Falls on Saturday, March 23. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Children pick up eggs during an Inclusive Easter Egg Hunt for kids with low vision, sensory or wheelchair and walker accessibility needs hosted by Healthy Beginnings Pediatric Therapy in Columbia Falls on Saturday, March 23. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Jenni Kingan, owner of Healthy Beginnings Physical Therapy, helps a child pick up eggs during an Inclusive Easter Egg Hunt for kids with low vision, sensory or wheelchair and walker accessibility needs hosted by Healthy Beginnings Pediatric Therapy in Columbia Falls on Saturday, March 23. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    A child picks up eggs during an Inclusive Easter Egg Hunt for kids with low vision, sensory or wheelchair and walker accessibility needs hosted Healthy Beginnings Pediatric Therapy in Columbia Falls on Saturday, March 23. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    A child picks up eggs during an Inclusive Easter Egg Hunt for kids with low vision, sensory or wheelchair and walker accessibility needs hosted by Healthy Beginnings Pediatric Therapy in Columbia Falls on Saturday, March 23. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider