Last month young budding braillists from all over Northern California converged at the LightHouse for the most important braille competition to be held all year.
Twenty K through 12 kids, with their families there to cheer them on, put their braille skills to test in a variety of competencies including; Reading and Comprehension, Speed and Accuracy Proofreading, Spelling, and Chart and Graph Reading.
The Braille Challenge is a two-part contest for K-12 youth who read and write braille. It is a unique academic competition designed to encourage and reward students for emphasizing their braille reading and writing skills. In addition to the competition, the event included an “Amazing Race: LightHouse Version” a hands-on tech workshop and resource fair, as well as a self-defense demonstration and workshop for the children by 1-Touch Self Defense. Overall, it was a fun-filled day promoting the importance and value of Braille literacy.
LightHouse would like to thank the following for their very generous collaboration and support:
Braille Institute of America, California School for the Blind, Vista Center for the Blind & Visually Impaired, Junior Blind of America, Humanware, Seedlings, California Council of the Blind (San Francisco and Silicon Valley Chapters), Beulah Reamer Legacy, National Braille Press, McKenzie by Sew-On, Subway, Stephen Gray, Richard Warner from 1-Touch Self Defense, our wonderfully dedicated volunteers, Keynote Speaker Hoby Wedler, all of the TVIs who taught, supported, and encouraged the contestants, and of course, our amazing Braille Challenge contestants.
Congratulations to our Braille Challenge 2014 Top 3 Finishers in Each Division!
Apprentice
3rd- Josephine Fatuesi
2nd- Theresa Liu
1st- Luke Phillip Pilar
Freshman
3rd- Mario Chitwood
2nd- Monserath Espinola
1st-Patricia Figueroa
Sophomore
3rd- Kaitlyn Austin
2nd- Nikhil Dadlani
1st- Ethan Fung
Junior Varsity
2nd- Alexia Arriola
1st- Sean McGee
Varsity
2nd- Connor Wong
1st- Santiago Hernandez
