Blind and visually impaired children congregate for an accessible Easter Egg Hunt

On April 19, 2014, our family had what we call a Beeping Easter Egg Hunt for the visually impaired children in Castro Valley.  This was our 15th annual and I plan to host for as long as my family lets me.

Every so often our family has to go and buy plastic Easter eggs, electronic beeper devices and nine volt batteries. These electronic beepers are inserted into the plastic eggs before they are hidden out in our big open field where the children use nothing but their ears to find them. Since some children have a little vision, blindfolds are provided to make the game fair.

We have to replace eggs because when children open them to disconnect the battery, they crack the egg.

Besides the egg hunt, this event features many other activities that everyone enjoys.  These activities include but are not limited to, a play structure, trampoline and a 70-foot zip line across our hill.  In the past, we borrowed our neighbor’s horse to give rides to the children, but liability is very hard to come by now.

This event brings together the visually impaired community for many different reasons.  First off, this is pretty much the only real way to make egg hunting accessible to blind people because real eggs cannot be heard or smelled.  If blind people used their canes to tap the ground and feel for eggs, real non beeping ones would probably break.

Secondly, a lot of blind children might not get to do activities such as zip line riding due to monetary limitations and parent limitations.  A zip line ride at a commercial operation can cost over $40 whereas our zip line is free.  Also, a lot of parents would never dream of allowing their children to participate in certain activities that this event provides simply because they have low expectations.

As a host of this event, I get many thrills and enjoyments.  For example, when I am helping people board the zip line, I feel like a ride operator at an amusement park.  Besides helping with activities, I also enjoy delivering invitations and making them.

As a matter of fact, I was a student at the majority of the schools where we deliver the invitations. This means that I get to visit the teachers I used to have while I am notifying the students of my great and helpful event.

This event was inspired by a story my father read in the newspaper about a blind child who was unable to hunt easter eggs. In the story, one of the sighted children decided to allow the blind child to hunt eggs like everyone else, so my dad thought it would be good to do this for our community.