[accessibleimage] easter egg hunt- accessible

Easter Egg hunts - tradition accessible

links

http://www.abpnews.com/930.article

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/spotlight/news-article.aspx?storyid=55175



Done with arson case, Alabama ATF agent leads hunt for beeping eggs

By Grace Thornton

Published April 5, 2006

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP) -- David Hyche has spent the last two months helping people hunt things.

Hyche, the agent in charge of supervising the church fire investigations for the Birmingham Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives division, has led his team through a massive search for answers since the blazes began in early February.

But as the fire case begins to wind down, he and his church, with help from his crime-solving colleagues, are part of a different sort of hunt -- an Easter egg hunt for visually impaired children.

“I’ve seen it done before in large cities like Washington, D.C., where they have beeping eggs for visually impaired kids to hunt,” said Hyche, whose 19-month-old daughter, Rachel, is blind. “It’s expensive to do, so it’s not done very often. And to my knowledge, it’s never been done in the state.”

But when the idea made its way to him, it found the right person. Hyche, a member of North Shelby Baptist Church in Birmingham, had good help at his fingertips.

“I asked the guys from the Hoover and Birmingham police bomb squads to come help, and they agreed before I’d even gotten the request fully out,” he said.

Officers swarmed the fellowship hall at North Shelby Baptist March 28, quickly falling into an assembly line of wiring batteries, circuitry and pulsating beepers together and drilling into 50 eggs holes large enough for intermittent beeps to escape.

“We tried a few of the eggs out with Rachel before today, and anything she didn’t destroy she thoroughly enjoyed,” Hyche said with a laugh. He turned to the group assembled and shouted, “My daughter is quality control and will be here in a few minutes to see if yours pass the test.”

The men laughed.

“I can imagine that it’s not really fun to be visually impaired and go to an Easter egg hunt,” Birmingham Sgt. Errol Culpepper said. “These eggs hopefully will help them be able to enjoy it.”

Hyche said when he thought of the project, he’d had his daughter in mind as well as the other children in his church and community who aren’t able to enjoy normal egg hunts. And getting the church on board with a separate hunt for visually impaired children in conjunction with their usual Easter egg hunt was a breeze. North Shelby Baptist already reaches out to those with special needs, Hyche noted.

“God has given us three visually impaired children in our church, and they are fully integrated and active in our church,” said Pastor Allan Murphy, noting that since Rachel and another family’s twin 9-year-old girls came to North Shelby Baptist, church members have been trying to give special attention to their needs.

The church has also become more sensitive to opportunities to minister to blind children and their families through the Alabama Association for Parents of children with Visual Impairments, a support network Hyche established.

“It has helped open our eyes to the needs,” Murphy said.

The congregation has since been exploring ways to reach out. Sunday School and Mother’s Day Out teachers offer tactile learning opportunities and lavish attention on the children, Hyche said. The church even has a full multivolume Braille Bible on hand.

And of course, there’s the Easter egg hunt, which will be held April 15 at a home near the church.

“It’s pretty difficult for a visually impaired child to find Easter eggs … well-meaning children will put their hands on the egg for them, and that doesn’t allow for the free participation, creativity and competition that kids love about Easter egg hunts,” Hyche said. “This will allow them to do it on their own.”

The “sighted” children will hunt first and then play on inflatables, while the visually impaired children have the hunt all to themselves.

A helper will go with each child to disable the beepers made by the bomb squads and replace them with candy.

“Families of visually impaired children have needs that are unique, and we are trying to serve and understand those specific needs in the best possible way to give them support,” Hyche said.

-30-


article



First Coast News, Florida USA
Wednesday, April 05, 2006

An Amazing Easter for Blind Students

By Jessica Clark, First Coast News

Start Video

ST. AUGUSTINE, FL -- For blind students, an egg hunt is nearly impossible. However, with the help of some chirping eggs, it happened Wednesday.

About 15 blind and nearly blind students at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind may have not gone on an Easter egg hunt before, but they knew what to do.

Ryan McCleary, a 7-year-old student clearly said, "You look for the eggs and some may have candy in them."

But the eggs he and his classmates would hunt had something different inside.

7-year-old student Dominick Silverio had been briefed on the eggs prior to the hunt. He explained, "They have a wire inside, it's a beeping box. They'll go beep, beep, beep."

And sure enough, the plastic eggs did emit a beeping noise to help the students find them.

Carol Hadley's local group, the BellSouth Pioneers, hatched the chirping egg idea after seeing a toy chick that chirped in a drug store isle.

So a fellow engineer performed a chirper transplant from chick to egg. Hadley's group made dozens of chirping eggs, by dissecting the toy chick, removing the noise-mechanism, and placing it inside plastic eggs.

Hadley even helped hide some of the noisy eggs on the school's playground with other teachers.

The kids could hardly stand the wait.

Ryan, who often walks with a cane, made no bones about it. "My goal is to get all the eggs."

However he faced some stiff competition from his classmate Dominick who said he wanted to fill his Easter gift bag "up to the tip top."

Finally, their teacher set the class free.

The students were on a mission, scouring the playground for every beep, every chirp. A keen sense of hearing led the students to the eggs. under the slide, by the jungle gym, and tucked next to bench.

Hadley couldn't stop smiling.

"It gives the blind children an opportunity to do things that people in the sighted world take for granted," Hadley commented.

"I didn't know how well the children would find them, but they did great. I'm finding out that kids are just kids. It's just the enthusiasm of looking for eggs, finding them, and having fun. This makes me feel so good," she adds with a big grin.

The kids looked like they had a good time too. They didn't crack into any candy by finding the eggs, but they did find a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

Besides, a party was planned after the hunt complete with cookies and treats. They were even able to persuade their teachers to hide the chirping eggs for one more go at it.


http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/spotlight/news-article.aspx?storyid=55175







Other related posts: