Categories: Inspiring

High School Students Surprise Blind Classmate With Special Braille Yearbook

They spent 1,500 hours working on the special yearbook!

Getting a yearbook is one of the best high school traditions that teenagers can enjoy. However, one student has never been able to do so because he is blind. Luckily, his own classmates found a way to make sure things will change this time as they spent thousands of hours creating a special braille yearbook for the high school senior!

Randy “RJ” Sampson is a graduating senior at Conifer High School in Conifer, Colorado. He has always wanted a chance to read the yearbook. Unfortunately, Sampson is blind and so he is unable to view the special book unlike regular students. Sampson had previously reached out to the yearbook staff requesting a special yearbook for himself. Although he never expected his classmates to do something about it, he was in for a truly awesome surprise.

Sampson has always wanted a special yearbook he could read.

Laurel Ainsworth is also a senior graduating this year and the editor-in-chief of the yearbook. According to Ainsworth, Sampson had approached their instructor Leslie Thompson about a special yearbook during his freshman year. However, Thompson wasn’t sure if the yearbook staff would be able to make it happen.

Nevertheless, Ainsworth and the rest of the yearbook staff decided that Sampson deserved a yearbook he could read. They finished the regular yearbooks ahead of schedule then put down about 1,500 hours of work on Sampson’s special book. They then presented it to Sampson during the “Rites of Passage” where the yearbooks are handed out.

Sampson was understandably moved by the gift from the yearbook staff.

“It really means a lot to me,” he said. “The community here is really so loving.”

Sampson receives the special braille yearbook from Ainsworth.

The special braille yearbook is certainly an amazing gift and Sampson is delighted to have something to remember his high school years with.

“The best part of my senior year was being able to enjoy it with my friends, I’m going to miss them,” Sampson said. “I think it’s really important to be able to continue through life and improve yourself as a person.”