An Amazing Easter for Blind Students

By Jessica Clark First Coast News

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.

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