The Winston-Salem Police Department’s Hazardous Devices Unit is hosting the 8th Annual “Beeping Easter Egg Hunt for the Blind and Visually Impaired.” This year’s “Spring Eggsplosion” hunts will be held Saturday, March 24 in Winston-Salem and Saturday, April 07 at the Gov. Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh.

The beeping Easter egg hunts were first held in 2011 and allow the visually impaired to participate in a traditional Easter egg hunt. The beeping egg hunts have been such a success that we wanted to make sure as many visually impaired and blind adults and children as possible have the opportunity to experience a traditional Easter egg hunt. We invite any member of the public, adult or child, who is blind or visually impaired and their families to join us at either of these events.

The egg hunt in Winston-Salem will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at Reynolda Village, 2201 Reynolda Road. Participants will hunt for beeping Easter eggs; interact with the bomb squad robots and “The Demon Deacon.” A miniature horse “TRISKIT” from RedDog Farms in Summerfield, NC, will also be joining us and you can also enjoy games, face painting and a race. We will also enjoy having the American Heritage Girls with us this year, The Winston-Salem Chapter of the NC Lions Club, Industries for the Blind and McGruff the Crime Dog.

The Hazardous Devices Unit has made more than 1100 beeping eggs for the hunts. Several eggs have been sent out all over the country so others can participate in this program.

The members of the Hazardous Devices Unit initiated the beeping egg hunts in 2011 after getting the idea at a conference for bomb technicians. We believe that this is a positive way to interact with members of the community, not only in Winston-Salem but all over the state of North Carolina. We have not only held the beeping egg hunts locally, we visited Camp Dogwood, a summer camp for visually impaired youth and adults in Sherrills Ford, NC. During the visits to the camp, we were able to watch adults as “YOUNG” as 94 years old enjoy their very first egg hunt and become a child again for a few hours. These moments are the reason we do what we do.