NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Two-and-a-half year old Paul Bloxom experienced the joy of his first Easter egg hunt on April 6. His parents brought him from their home in Chincoteague, Va., to First Baptist Church in Newport News, Va., to participate in an event most children take for granted.
Paul has a severe eye disorder called Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), a congenital retinal dystrophy. He can see changes in light, but very little else. At First Baptist he was participating in the first audible Easter egg hunt on Virginia’s Peninsula — hunting for beeping eggs that can be located by those with visual impairments.
Paul Bloxom enjoyed turning the beeping eggs off before placing them in his bucket.
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First Baptist and its missions committee partnered with the Lions Club of Newport News, Hampton and York County to provide the Easter egg hunt. Twenty-two children participated; five were sight-impaired. A mother and adult daughter, both blind, took part and siblings of sight-impaired children were blindfolded to join the event.
“The missions committee strives to identify ways our church can partner with existing or emerging ministries in the community to exhibit Christ,” said Linda Gregory, co-chair of the committee and a member of the Lions Club. “This event was a perfect for us and it was a wonderful day.”
With over 1.35 million members, the Lions Club International is the world’s largest service club organization. For nearly 100 years, its members have worked on projects to prevent blindness, restore eyesight and improve eye health and eye care for hundreds of millions of people.
The first audible egg hunt in Hampton Roads took place four years ago in Virginia Beach — the brainchild of Virginia Beach police officer Don Noha, who serves on the department’s bomb squad. He learned how to make the eggs from an ATF agent during a training exercise.
“The large plastic eggs open to show a handful of wires and a 9-volt battery, all held in place by a three-legged plastic contraption used to keep cheese from sticking to the lids of take-out pizza boxes,” said Noha. The beeping sound can be turned off and on with a switch on one end of the eggs. The sound is similar to a cacophony of crickets.
Several members of First Baptist were on hand to hide about 250 yellow, green, blue and red eggs. Gregory admits that most of the eggs were primarily placed on top of the ground and it was “very obvious where they were,” but adds, “Believe me, when you have that many eggs beeping at the same time, it’s not easy to tell where they are.”
After finding the large beeping eggs, children exchanged them for plastic eggs filled with candy and small prizes. There were also games, snacks, a fire truck to explore, a bounce house and other activities for the family.
The congregation invited sight-impaired children from public schools stretching from Williamsburg to Hampton. “There are an estimated 75 sight-impaired children in the public school systems of Newport News and Hampton alone,” said Gregory. “We also invited their sighted siblings.”
Safety is a primary concern during audible egg hunts and the large flat terrain and fenced area at First Baptist Church was ideal for the activity. Parents and children wore paper identification bands.
Audible egg hunts are growing in popularity around the country. Groups from Alabama to Texas to Massachusetts have contacted Noha to get their own egg hunts started. Some of the eggs at the First Baptist event were extra special — they had made a trip to the White House where they were used as part of the annual egg roll on the White House lawn on April 1.
“Paul was fascinated by the plastic eggs,” said Gregory. “He quickly discovered how to turn the sound mechanism off and on and began turning them off before he dropped them in his bucket.”
She says if he had been the only child to attend, all the preparation would have still been worth it. “His parents saw the audible Easter egg hunt in the newspaper and drove three hours to bring him to the church,” she said.
Gregory said First Baptist Church plans to do the hunt again next year — with expanded games and prizes. It also hopes to sponsor an audible egg hunt in 2014 on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
“We feel that the work we do with the Lions Club is a mission,” said Gregory. “This is a natural extension of that mission — a dual partnership with the church to reach into the community and touch the lives of visually-impaired children and their families.”
Barbara Francis ([email protected]) is on the staff of the Religious Herald.