Rachel Hyche, a visually impaired student at Oak Mountain Intermediate School, and her teacher, Stephanie Hardwick-Goldblatt, recently traveled to the ATF National Center for Explosives Training and Research (NCTER) in Huntsville to help construct electronic beeping Easter Eggs for use with blind and visually impaired children.  The Alabama Chapter of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators (IABTI)and ATF hosted the event, which has gone nationwide in recent years, but started in Shelby County.  In fact, the project is named the Rachel Project in honor of Hyche.  

Beeping Easter egg hunts will be held in four locations in Alabama this year in support of the Alabama Association for the Deaf and Blind main campus, Regional Centers as well as for the Alabama Association for Parents of the Visually Impaired (AAPVI).  

 “State, federal and local police explosive experts along with military bomb technicians joined together to construct these devices each year,” said Rachel’s father, David Hyche. “IABTI funds the project and sends the electronic materials out to the agencies who construct the electronic eggs.” 

Rachel and her teacher worked on mobility skills with cane travel in the large NCETR complex and then Rachel gave a speech and demonstration to the group on assistive devices for blind students that she uses at her school. 

“She brailled the Pledge of Allegiance for the crowd and Ms. Stephanie immediately started grading it,” said Mr. Hyche. “Rachel travels the school independently with her cane and the school has equipment on hand to make Braille and tactile material so that Rachel can have the same lessons and materials her friends have.  I travel quite a bit as the Region IV representative for the National Association for Parents of Visually Impaired Children and I get to be around blind children from all parts of the country.  Our school system has done a wonderful job with Rachel and this is not the story I normally hear from parents in other areas.”