Miles Visits Blind Children
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- Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2007 04:38:45 -0500
DenverBroncos.com, CO, USA
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Miles Visits Blind Children
By Christopher Smith
Caption: Children showed their Broncos pride at the Anchor Center for Blind
Children, welcoming Miles and Billy Thompson. PHOTO: PETE EKLUND
Parents struggle teaching their kids to read overnight. Transitioning from a
phonetic grasp of letters to memorizing letters that form three-letter words to
stringing together sentences from picture books takes time.
When your children are blind, it's an even bigger odyssey.
How do you translate invisible symbols into something palpable and perceptible?
Visually impaired children learn best by interaction. When the Broncos
installed a Reading Corner at the Anchor Center for Blind Children's new
facility Oct. 26, that was the difficulty.
The Broncos have opened up 27 reading corners since 2004 in Denver Public
Schools and area non-profits through Broncos Community Development. Each
reading corner provides age-appropriate books and football-themed furniture.
Billy Thompson and mascot Miles visit the children at the opening, leading an
interactive reading. Miles acts out the plot, which the blind children couldn't
see.
"You have to bring the world to their fingertips. Things tend to be a little
bit out of reach and you have to bring it to them and make it fun for them,"
said Charlotte Morgan, their teacher. "They're hearing the things, but there's
no concept, so when you bring it to them tactily, then they can understand the
rest of the concepts and what the word means."
Miles announced his presence to the 3, 4 and 5-year-olds by vigorously shaking
pom-poms. Upon entering the room, Miles kneeled on the floor and allowed the
children to explore his fuzzy head and large mouth with their hands.
"He's big, he's furry and he's wearing football pants," one of the kids said
while petting Miles' head.
Success.
"It's a very good description of who Miles is from a visually-impaired child's
point of view," said Pam Krotchko, manager of the Denver Broncos Charities
Fund. It was very special for them and it helped the kids connect with Miles,
for them to understand that he was there and he was bringing a very special
story of his adventures across Colorado to them."
As Thompson read them the story with extra intonation and laughter, props
helped the children investigate.
Volunteers sprayed mist on them when the pages boasted of a rafting adventure,
placed ice in their hands for ice skating and let them scrounge around in sand
and find rocks to emulate panning for gold.
Krotchko's favorite was hang gliding; they turned on a large fan as the kids
extended their arms out in the sky and let the wind blow in their face,
imagining what it would be like to look down and see the earth tumbling toward
them.
"The kids were doing what we wanted them to do. We wanted them to laugh. We
wanted them to giggle. We wanted them to have fun with it and we very much got
that experience from them," Krotchko said. "Coming out of it we always do
cookies and punch afterwards A lot of the kids spent a great deal of time
talking to us, telling us what they thought of Miles and what their favorite
part was."
Before leaving, the Broncos added some unique twists to their normal reading
corner setup so that visually impaired children could better grasp and love the
concept or reading and literacy.
Instead of a football-shaped table, the Anchor Center has a light table. For
kids that have some visual abilities but can't see as a normal child would,
this light table magnifies the words for them.
Perhaps the biggest hit is the reading loft. The children climb up to it and
read books in Braille or have someone climb up with them and read to them. From
the loft, they can reach out and feel the Miles "Read Like a Pro" banner,
specially-made to include Braille.
"The children love going to what's called the Broncos literacy room," Morgan
said. "They love the Broncos loft and reading up there, the football table,
chairs -- it has brought the reading to them. They're excited about it now."
As always, the Broncos organization livens up any activity, and this was no
exception -- even with the young ages.
Pocks of orange and blue decorated the room as many wore their Broncos jerseys.
"They get the excitement from the parents," Morgan said. "'Daddy's wearing his
jersey so I'm wearing mine too,' and 'Yay, Broncos!' Yes, they're aware of the
Broncos and they play football. They were very, very excited."
At the end of the day, the Broncos and the children went home delighted,
Krotchko said.
"We liked the challenge of being able to come in and do something very
different with their reading corner. What we saw there was an opportunity to
reach within our mission and serving youth and serving a very special niche of
youth with the message of literacy."
http://www.denverbroncos.com/page.php?id=334&storyID=7478
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