Her long, auburn pigtails bounced in cadence with her flying feet as Sofia Batchelor ran along the track Thursday morning at the Washington State School for the Blind. Her face was upturned. And she smiled. To stay on course, Sofia held the metal guide rail encircling the track.
When Sofia reached the finish line, her dad, Donny Batchelor, congratulated her and handed his daughter her cane.
Sofia was one of 121 Washington and Oregon students with visual impairments competing in the school’s annual track meet sponsored by the Lions Club. Some are partially sighted. Others, like Sofia, cannot see anything. Students are scored according to their age, gender and vision category. Kids ran distances from 50 meters to 200 meters, and competed in shot put, turbo javelin, standing long jump and tennis ball throw.
Jennifer Butcher, a teacher at the school and a chief organizer of the track meet, walked across the field with ribbons draped over her arm. She said she’s a believer in the good the track and field event does for the students. About half of the students attend the school for the blind, but most of the others attend their neighborhood school, where they may be the only visually impaired student.
“It’s a chance for kids to race on a fair playing field and to network with other blind kids,” Butcher said. “It helps their whole person.”
Monique Cerna, 15, is visually impaired and deaf. She has been practicing throwing for about a month, so when it was her turn to throw the turbo javelin, a modified javelin, she knew what to do. She stepped up, pulled back her arm and let it go.
“It was really fun to throw it,” she said a few minutes later with the aid of an interpreter.
It’s the Bellevue teen’s first year attending the Vancouver school. She rattled off her other events: high jump, standing long jump and several running events.
Hope Millam, 10, threw the turbo javelin 20 feet, 11 inches. The fourth-grader at Boistfort School in Lewis County said she’d never thrown the javelin until the track meet. Wearing sparkling blue star earrings, she cheered on the next javelin thrower with: “Go, Trista, go!”
Miguel Viveros, 15, a freshman, is the only visually impaired student at Connell High School in Franklin County. He joined track three years ago and said he loves running. He is a shot-putter on his school’s track team. He plans to attend Columbia Basin College in nearby Pasco.
“It was extravagant! Really fun!” Miguel exclaimed after catching his breath following his 100-meter sprint.
Hannah Albright, 16, is a freshman at the school for the blind. On weekends, she goes home to her family in Portland.
“I love the adrenaline,” she said after running the 50-meter sprint.
From the sidelines, on blankets and lawn chairs, parents, grandparents, foster parents, siblings, teachers and lots of volunteers cheered the kids. Longtime volunteer Mollie Hands has helped kids swim in the school pool at least once a week for 42 years.
Sofia Batchelor was born with impaired vision and had nine corneal transplants by the time she was 2 or 3. The surgeries produced some vision for a short time, but they didn’t work for the long term. Now Sophia is completely blind.
The 10-year-old Felida girl, who is home-schooled, hasn’t let her visual impairment prevent her from excelling at schoolwork — math, listening to audio books and writing. After school, she plays piano, guitar and sings music from classical to pop to Disney tunes. And she runs.
During the two weeks before the track meet, Sofia’s parents brought her to the track several times so she could practice.
“I like running the most,” she said. “Sometimes I feel like I’m flying. Like I can just keep on forever. ”
