Saturday, April 4, 2026

Rose Bowl Hosts Special Beeping Easter Egg Hunt for Blind and Visually Impaired Children

By THERESE EDU

Blind and visually impaired children will have a Rose Bowl egg hunt all to themselves for a half hour on Saturday morning — hunting for eggs by sound and touch in a private window that the Rose Bowl and Pasadena Parks, Recreation and Community Services carved out with the Braille Institute, now in its second year.

The Beeping Egg Hunt runs from 9 to 9:30 a.m. on April 4 at 1001 Rose Bowl Dr.  Advance online registration is required at brailleinstitute.org; the Braille Institute sends a confirmation email upon registration. The event is completely free. Check in begins at 8:30 a.m.

By 9 a.m., more than 200 beeping and chirping eggs and 300 seven-inch high-contrast eggs filled with fidget toys, sensory toys, and scented Play Doh will be scattered across the field. The general public will not enter for the broader Egg Bowl festival until 11 a.m.

The event is now in its second year at the Rose Bowl — and it was the Rose Bowl and the city, not the Braille Institute, that made the first call.

“We were actually invited by Dominic Corey at The Rose Bowl and Dolores McConnell from Pasadena Parks and Rec,” said Elizabeth Reyes, a child development consultant at the Braille Institute. “They thought that it would be a great way to include children with disabilities. And they opened up a time slot that was private to our students and children with visual impairments.”

Children locate eggs using auditory and tactile skills. Eggs emit beeping or chirping sounds; children using white canes can find them by gently bumping into them.

Patricia Gallardo, Director of Youth and Child Services at the Braille Institute, said events designed specifically for visually impaired children produce a different outcome than general-public events.

“We receive calls all the time where parents contact and let us know that their child is a part of maybe their school events, but because it’s designed for the general public, their children come home a little saddened because maybe they didn’t collect as many

eggs, maybe they didn’t [move as] fast as the other children,” Gallardo said. “They’re a little disheartened when they come home. And so for them to know that it was tough for you here with your peers, your sighted peers, we know that there’s a hunt designed especially for you where they will be successful.”

The concept of the beeping egg traces to 2005, when ATF Assistant Special Agent David Hyche built a low-cost prototype — a switch, a piezo beeper, a 9-volt battery, and a battery clip — so his blind 19-month-old daughter could participate in Easter egg hunts. Each egg cost approximately $11.50 to assemble, according to an ATF press release.

The Braille Institute estimates there are roughly 11,000 blind or visually impaired children under age 11 in the Los Angeles area. All of the organization’s programs, including the egg hunt, are free of charge.

Free parking is available in Lot F, and Pasadena Transit Route 51 will offer free rides to and from the event.

The Beeping Egg Hunt begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 4, at the Rose Bowl, 1001 Rose Bowl Dr., Pasadena. Check-in begins at 8:30 a.m. The event is free and open to children who are blind or visually impaired. Advance registration is required at brailleinstitute.org. Free parking is available in Lot F.