A Touching Visit : Santa, Uniformed Helpers Treat Blind, Visually Impaired Children

A police helicopter spiraled down into the parking lot, blowing up a dust storm and making the children gathered below screech with terror and delight.

“Ho, ho, ho!” boomed a voice over the helicopter’s loudspeaker. “Merry Christmas!”

The chopper landed and a fat man in a red suit struggled to climb out of the cramped cockpit. He waddled over and the children, some of them wearing thick glasses and others carrying white canes, ran up to hug him.

It was the 12th annual Christmas party sponsored by the Braille Institute Auxiliary of Orange Coast, with help from the Newport Beach police and fire departments as well as the paramedics and the California Highway Patrol.

For several hours Saturday, about 60 children--including blind and visually impaired children from Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles counties as well as some of their brothers, sisters and friends--were allowed to scramble over police cruisers, motorcycles, ambulances, fire trucks, and, of course, the helicopter.

“The kids, not only do they get to enjoy the Christmas season, but they also get to view equipment that otherwise they never get to touch,” explained Debbie Gray, who organized the event. “It’s a touch and feel.”

Among other adventures, children were allowed to pet Hondo the police dog, climb inside the helicopter and move the controls, rev up the motorcycles, clamber aboard the ladder truck, talk to each other on police radios, and blow every siren, whistle and horn.

The noise was deafening.

“Last year, we stuffed rags in the sirens,” said Steven J. Schuyler, youth coordinator for the Braille Institute in Anaheim. “It was easier than passing out earplugs.”

Newport Beach Police Officer Glenn Caldwell gave 7-year-old John Pak a grand tour of his police cruiser, running the Anaheim second-grader’s hands over all of the equipment and explaining how to work the police radio.

“Who can you talk to?” John asked.

“People outside,” said the officer.

“Oh,” John said. He heard a clicking sound, asked what it was, and was informed that it was the sound of a photographer snapping his picture.

“Take a picture of this guy,” he demanded, pointing at the officer. “This guy is cool.”

Meanwhile, Santa (portrayed by Newport Beach elementary school sixth-grade teacher Ralph Whitford) was trying to explain to another group of children why he had to arrive by helicopter.

“It’s hard to get around without my reindeer,” he said. “The police officers felt sorry for me, see? They saw me hitchhiking down the road so they picked me up and gave me a ride.”

Shanda Taber, 8, of Cathedral City, said she liked Santa so much she intended to leave him chocolate chip cookies.

“I like him because he’s fun,” she said. “He’s nice to us and he picks us up and he gives us presents.”

Nearly all of the children attend public schools, but they also attend special after-school programs at the Braille Institute designed to help them develop independent living skills, Gray said.