Audible eggs sweet music to these ears

By Rita Frankenberry
The Virginian-Pilot

In November, Don Noha applied for a $5,000 grant hoping to use the funding to help him create 500 beeping Easter eggs.
Noha, an officer with the Virginia Beach Police Department Bomb Squad, will be using 350 of the brightly colored eggs during the Second Annual Easter Egg Hunt for Children with Visual Impairments on April 16.

Although Noha didn’t get the needed funding, recently, local organizations have stepped forward to help pay for the unique eggs.

“We’re generating enough interest that I believe we’ll be able to more than cover the expenses,” Noha said. In the meantime, he has funded creation of the eggs himself.

“It’s something I feel compelled to do,” he added. “It’s a self-rewarding project to me. It’s far beyond tangible benefits.”

The Bayville Farms Park event is sponsored by members of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators – Noha is a member – as well as the Virginia Association of Parents of the Visually Impaired and teachers of the visually impaired from Virginia Beach Public Schools.

As other local groups have learned about Noha’s efforts they have also been eager to help.

Donations from area organizations have begun to trickle in – Noha received a $600 donation from the Croatan Civic League, a $250 donation from regional Lions Clubs and $500 from Chartway Federal Credit Union.

In addition to the funding, event organizers have also received interest from a number of volunteer organizations willing to donate their time to the event.

After Robin Magrisi, president of Delta Gamma’s Tidewater Alumnae chapter, found out about the Easter egg hunt, she quickly signed up to help with the event.

“It complements our overall philanthropic mission of sight conservation and aid to the visually-impaired,” Magrisi said. “While our final role isn’t finalized yet, we’ll likely be supporting them at the registration desk and with running a variety of games during the outing.”

Last year’s event attracted about 40 participants, but Noha hopes to double that amount this year. In addition to the Easter egg hunt, this year’s event will also include a few games with prizes, as well as therapy dogs, the 4-H rabbit club and horses from the city’s mounted patrol.

“It’s all tactile related,” Noha said. “We’re catering the entire event to the blind children. The way these children learn is by putting their hands on things.”

Noha has had so many requests to volunteer at the event this year, that the volunteers may outnumber the participants. Besides the volunteers from Delta Gamma, there will also be volunteers from the area’s Lions Clubs and members of the Navy’s Riverine Squadron 1 who will also be assisting during the event.

“It’s definitely snowballed on us,” Noha said.

Members of the Riverine Squadron 1 also will help build some of the 500 beeping eggs – 350 Easter eggs will be used during this event and the remaining 150 eggs will be donated to EDMARC Hospice for Children in Portsmouth, for use in their annual Easter egg hunt and spring fling. And Noha recently got some more surprise help with assembling the eggs.

Students with Virginia Beach Middle’s Technology Club are also going to be assembling about 100 of the audible Easter eggs.

Noha speculates that not getting the grant funding last year was probably a good thing.

“Had we won the Pepsi Refresh Grant, the process of reaching out to all these other groups might not have happened,” Noha said.

Irene Conlin, an event coordinator with the Virginia Association of Parents of the Visually Impaired, is also grateful for the help and support the event has gotten.

“It’s grown incredibly since last year,” Conlin said. “I can’t believe how many people have stepped forward wanting to help.”
It was during last year’s event, Conlin said, that her then 16-year-old daughter found her first Easter egg on her own. Conlin’s daughter, Elizabeth, has been blind since birth.

“People don’t realize that’s a rite of passage,” Conlin added. “So we’re trying to make that opportunity for them.”

Rita Frankenberry, rita.frankenberry@pilotonline.com, 222-5102.