SAN FRANCISCO — Crickets! That’s what the oblong orbs — glittering purple and pink plastic eggs — sounded like as Audrey Walker, 3, held each one up to her ear.
This was Audrey’s haul from the Beeper Egg Hunt, which the Blind Babies Foundation rolled out here Saturday at Midtown Terrace Park. The eggs, hundreds of them, emitted an electronic chirrup, and the kids spread out across the broad expanse of grass, following the sound with empty Easter baskets.
From a basket filled with these curiously chirping objects, Audrey plucked 20 or 30 eggs in quick succession, whipping them behind her back like missiles. Audrey has no eyes, so there was no chance that her routine was anything other than precociousness.
Blind Babies Foundation is one of those organizations that you might never hear about — despite its 61 years of good works — unless you have a child born blind.
“Families aren’t expecting to have a child that’s blind or visually impaired, so at first they’re overwhelmed,” said Julie Bernas-Pierce, the agency’s executive director. “Sometimes they’re grieving the loss of that dream of having a perfect baby. We help them see their children in a different light.”
‘The sun came out’
Audrey’s parents, Jim and Heather Walker of San Jose, certainly weren’t expecting to have a child born without eyes.
“I spent 17 years in law enforcement, and nothing ever terrified me like being confronted with this,” said Jim Walker, who worked for Sunnyvale Public Safety. “What were we going to do for her? What kind of life was she going to have? So when Blind Babies came to the house and showed us the little jungle gyms that they had for her, and told us that she was going to be able to function in society, that there was going to be a future for her, it was like the fog lifted and the sun came out.”
The Beeper Egg hunt unfolded in the shadow of Sutro Tower. Children were hoisted into the driver’s seat of a shiny red fire engine, then descended upon a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, or to listen to the magic act of the Great Blindini, a blind magician from Santa Cruz.
Some, like Rohan Ng, a 3-year-old from San Jose with cortical visual impairment, took a cart ride behind Ringo, a giant black Newfoundland dog.
Until this year, Rohan couldn’t sit up because of the brain injury that caused his vision problems. But after one giggly lap Saturday, he was enjoying himself so much, that he told Ringo once more around the park. And off they went.
Not separate
Kaitlyn Guynn, 7, was sitting not far away with a brown bunny on her lap, feeling his paws. For four years, she and her mother, Erika, have driven 260 miles from McKinleyville, near the Oregon border, to attend the Beeper Egg Hunt.
“She talks about it for weeks before we come,” Erika Guynn said. “She gets so much enjoyment out of it.” Kaitlyn has also become friends with Alexia and Elysia Arriola, 10-year-old identical twins from San Jose, who have been to every one of the nine annual gatherings.
Both girls underwent surgery soon after birth, and some of Elysia’s sight was restored. Alexia’s wasn’t.
“I can’t see a wall,” Alexia said. “So someone has to tell me where it is.”
After a lifetime of hunting electronic Easter eggs, however, nobody had to tell her where those were. “I get so many eggs that I have to drag my basket,” she said cheerfully.
A specialist from Blind Babies showed up at the family’s home when the girls were only months old.
“It made us realize that we could still do everything that other families do with their kids,” said Marieta Arriola. “The reason we’re here today is because they’ve meant everything to us. This BBF family is the one that really guided us, and helped us recognize that we didn’t have to separate ourselves from everyone else.”
Alexia goes to school in Alum Rock so she can work with a teacher who specializes in visual impairment training, but she has been mainstreamed academically since she was in kindergarten.
Memories all year long
Adam Mody, 6, has come to the Easter egg hunt every year of his life, and his vision has improved enough over that time that he hunts for the nonbeeping eggs that are put out for the siblings of the blind children.
His older sister, Alison, is close to Adam now, but that wasn’t always true.
“She didn’t bond with him for the first year,” said their mother, Maria, “because there was this feeling that she might lose him, so why bother?”
Even with improvement, Adam still uses a cane to get around. “If he doesn’t use it, he’s got bruises all over,” said his mom. “He just doesn’t use it to hunt for Easter eggs.”
Like Easter eggs, the kids were all different; but they were all in the same basket.
“There are a million questions that you don’t address as the parent of a sighted child,” Jim Walker said. “Audrey gets hurt because of her blindness. She’s slamming her feet into things, she’s smashing into chairs. My heart is breaking for her almost every day. But today everything is focused on her in a good way. She’s not tripping, she’s not falling, it’s just a lot of fun. And the memory stays with her all year long.”
Contact Bruce Newman at 408-920-5004.
