BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — Inside the Race Building next to Freedom Hall on the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds is where you'll find the Sensory Room.
"We have a lot of friends of the fair that need a quiet room, some place for maybe their loved one or family to be able to go in and calm down a little bit," Randy Karschner, Bloomsburg Fair President.
In the Sensory Room, you'll find tables, chairs, colored books, and other items.
"There are lots of little nicks knacks they can just play with their hands and keep their hands busy, straws that make noise when you use them, we want to add to it we want to put, we've been going around seeing rooms at schools and things that give us some ideas, soft lights, bubble lights," said Karschner.
Fair officials also added an Adaptive Changing Room at the EMS Building on Third Street.
The room features a Hoyer lift with different-sized slings and beds for changing or stretching out. We caught up with Alison Heck, and her son Jeremy from Swoyersville took advantage of both rooms at the fairgrounds.
"I think it's great to be more inclusive and have a place for children like my son Jeremy to come here and kind of decompress and relax; it's a lot of stimulation out there, so I think it's a fantastic thing," said Alison Heck, Swoyersville.
Before the Sensory Room, Heck and her son would have to hunt for a quiet spot.
"Sometimes we had places where we had to go all the way into our wheelchair van and like kind of calm him down, so this avoids all of that, definitely, definitely helps," said Heck.
Fair officials say they hope to improve and add to the Sensory and Adaptive Changing Rooms next year.