The ‘egg-celent’ Deaf/Hard of Hearing Easter Egg Hunt has adoring volunteers at the ready
Events hanging out with and involving Deaf/Hard of Hearing people and ASL are a huge aspect of Deaf culture, and Eagle High’s very own ASL Club participate in these events every so often. They get the wonderful opportunity to use their ASL knowledge and practice in normal, everyday conversations.
This year, the club volunteered at the yearly event put on by the Idaho Education Services for the Deaf and Blind (IESDB). The annual Deaf/Hard of Hearing Community Easter Egg Hunt is beloved by children, families and those wanting to enrich themselves in the local community.
“Everyone comes together for Easter and do an egg hunt for all the kids,” said junior Alexander Trexler, member of the Eagle High ASL Club. “They have games and prizes and [we all] just hang out and socialize.”
The Eagle High ASL Club was hard at work with their preparation for the event. Club members ran a donation campaign involving their club, as well as ASL classes, to gather the candy that is going to be in the Easter eggs. This donation campaign also included small toys and prizes for the children participating as well as filling out of the organizer’s Amazon Wishlist.
“I think being able to be apart of the process where we’re gathering stuff that we’re going to be able to give to the kids [was my favorite part],” said senior Ella Thompson, president of the Eagle High ASL Club. “I liked gathering the prizes, the candy and the eggs.” The event is always held at a park, with colorful eggs full of wrapped candy scattered throughout the field, with kids gathering as much of the pastel-plastic eggs that they can hold.
The event was also an opportunity to socialize with the community; one can have genuine and fun conversations with Deaf/Hard of Hearing people, learn from other ASL students throughout the Treasure Valley and experience firsthand the beauty and close-knit nature of the community.
“[Last year,] we were just having a great time. We were signing to each other and sometimes we’d make mistakes, but it would be okay because it’d be funny and I’d be laughing,” Trexler said. Trexler has degenerative hearing loss, taking up an interest in ASL and his culture whilst using a cochlear implant as an aid to navigate the hearing world. “I didn’t start participating in Deaf community events until very recently, so I guess it’s just being able to experience something that I missed out on when I was younger. It’s kind of bittersweet.”
This year, however, the event organizers expected rainy weather the day of the hunt. The rain caused the event to be held inside the Eagle Christian Church. Everything went on exactly as planned, and it was smooth sailing after the sudden switch in plans; the hunt boasted a tremendous turnout.
“[I was most excited about] being behind the scenes, helping everything run,” Thompson said. “The things that I signed up to volunteer for were helping people if they had questions and show them where to go and things like that.”
For hearing attendees, the event organizers stressed the importance of respect at the event. Every age group was welcome to hangout and have a great time, as well as anyone with any level of ASL knowledge, but the respect for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing space was the key to the fun time everyone had. There were plenty of games, snacks, a raffle and of course, candy, for those who enjoyed.
“For any Deaf event, go with at least one person that you know so that you feel like you have someone that you can lean back on if you’re like ‘oh I don’t know what to do here, I’ll just have this person I know,’” Trexler said. “You don’t have to feel like you’re not apart of it because you’ll have that one person there to bounce off of.”
