Challenge accepted
Find out how Oklahoma competitors fared in the national Braille Challenge.
Hunter Kelley, 8, Claremore, and Richelle Zampella, 16, Muskogee, brought back awards from the recent Braille Challenge competition in Los Angeles, hosted by the Braille Institute.
Both are students at the Oklahoma School for the Blind in Muskogee.
They, along with Richelle’s sister, Katelynn Zampella, 10, were among the top 50 finalists selected from preliminary events held in the United States and Canada, for blind or visually impaired youth ages 6-19 years.
The Zampella sisters, both blind since birth, and Hunter, who lost his sight at 17 months because of retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer, worked diligently in their study of braille to achieve their status as state and national finalists. Hunter was cleaning his room, when his mom, Kimberly Politte, called him to the phone to talk about the medal and certificate he earned in the spelling portion of the braille competition.
Braille Institute developed the two-stage annual competition to encourage school-age children to fine tune their braille skills and celebrate their accomplishments. This year more than 1,100 braille readers participated in one of 51 preliminary regional events across the US and Canada.
While he and his family were in California, Hunter said he waded in the ocean and got knocked down by a wave. He found Will Rogers’ star on the sidewalk on the Hollywood Hall of Fame, and visited the Natural History Museum.
“Spelling is fun, reading is fun,” Hunter said, I made some mistakes, but I won third place in the braille spelling competition. One of the words was ‘extinct.’”
“I like to think about a lot of impossible things,” Hunter said. “Like if Pokemon is real.”
Richelle, 16, received the Harley Fetterman Award named in honor of an Austin boy who loved competing in the charts and graphs category of the braille competition.
Harley passed away in 2016, and Richelle, who will be a junior at the Oklahoma School of the Blind and also enjoys the challenge of braille charts and graphs, said she is thrilled with her award.
“I didn’t place this year,” Richelle, said. “I want to improve my confidence, and my goal is to place in the top three next year.
She intends to pursue a degree in music education and said Chris Ferrell, the band director at the Oklahoma School for the Blind, is encouraging her to come back to the school as an assistant band director.