Vision comes from within

Once upon a time, a little girl sat on the carpet in a Borah Elementary School classroom, listening to teacher Barb Sinsley read stories and sing songs.

Wednesday, the girl, who is not so little anymore, sat on a chair in the front of Sinsley’s kindergarten class. Dozens of little eyes focused on 18-year-old Verina Chappell as she read “Buzz Said the Bee.”

“Once there was a bee who sat on duck,” Chappell said. ” ‘Quack,’ said the duck. ‘There’s a bee on me!’ “

Giggles escaped from the audience at the sound of Chappell’s silly duck voice. The Lake City High School senior smiled. Students paid little attention to Chappell rubbing her fingers over the embossed Braille letters as she read the story.

“It’s a real familiar school,” said Chappell, who has been blind since birth. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been here. There are familiar voices.”

Chappell visits Sinsley’s room twice a week, reading to the children and helping them learn their letters. But what the students learn from Chappell goes beyond academics, Sinsley said.

“It gives them more awareness that people who are different are exactly the same as they are,” Sinsley said. “They think and act and talk and have all the same desires they have.”

Chappell volunteers at the school through Lake City’s life skills class. The class prepares special-education students – Chappell also is epileptic and developmentally delayed – for life beyond high school by teaching work and social skills.

In the past, Chappell has worked for TESH and in the laundry room at Kootenai Medical Center. This year, she was given different options. One was volunteering with students at Borah Elementary.

Chappell remembered Sinsley, her kindergarten teacher. The teacher has had students from Life Skills volunteer in her class before.

But Chappell is special. She was a student in Sinsley’s class the very first year she began teaching. Sinsley is retiring this year.

“It’s so exciting,” Sinsley said. “It’s like I’ve come full circle.”

Chappell has come full circle, too. She’s set to graduate and recently moved out on her own. She lives in a group home with two roommates.

Since she began working in Sinsley’s room, Chappell’s teachers say she has blossomed.

“It’s the first time in her life she has done for somebody,” said Jill Mikael, the district’s teacher for the visually impaired. “People have always done for her.”

When Chappell reads to the students, aide Krista Wasson stands nearby and turns pages, showing pictures to the children.

Wasson said Chappell hasn’t complained once about her “job” in the kindergarten room.

“I think it really builds up her self-esteem,” Wasson said. “She’s matured so much since she’s come in here.”

The kids are curious, Wasson said, and study Chappell as she works with them. They watch as the girl with the talking watch feels the Braille on flash cards and pronounces the letters aloud.

They curiously finger the game pieces, dice with bumpy dots and game board with raised arrows and indentations that Chappell brought to class. For many of the children, Chappell is the first blind person they’ve met.

Chappell practices reading the books and rehearses voices and expressions before she visits the class. Sometimes she sings for the children.

“It means a great deal to me,” Chappell said. “I thought, man, I better do good. My heart is filled with joy.”

Last week, one of Chappell’s classmates at Lake City came to school in a foul mood, Mikael said. Teachers tried to help, but nothing seemed to work.

“Verina said, ‘Would you like me to sing a song to cheer you up?’ ” Mikael said. “He said yes.”

Mikael said it was not like anything she’d ever seen Chappell do before.

Chappell is unassuming, with simply cropped brown hair. The music that comes from within her is anything but subtle.

“She has the kind of voice that makes shivers go down your back,” Mikael said.

Chappell loves to sing and loves to listen to music. She especially likes Nick Lachey from the pop-rock band 98 Degrees.This year, Chappell auditioned and was chosen to sing the National Anthem at Lake City basketball games. She participates in choir and is taking a music appreciation class.

Someday, she hopes to teach choir or music. She also wants to learn to play piano and is trying to find someone to give her lessons.

Wasson has worked with Chappell for five years now. Often, she takes Chappell to the Long Ear to buy CDs as a treat. On their last trip, Chappell bought a Hoobastank CD. Chappell kept asking Wasson on Wednesday when they could they go back to the store. She wanted to buy Nick Lachey’s first solo album.

Without sight, Chappell’s auditory senses are heightened. She thrives on CDs and movies and especially likes to hear people whistle.

As she sat in the cafeteria at school on Tuesday, Chappell listened to CDs through her headphones. As Mikael began to talk about her beautiful singing voice, Chappell removed her headphones and began to sing.

“We shall overcome,” she sang, oblivious to anyone else in the cafeteria. “We shall overcome. I know in my heart, we shall overcome someday.”