News
Your incredible neighbors: BASEBALL FOR THE BLIND
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| Jaime Richardson | Green Valley News Green Valley residents Kay and Vernon Grimes helped develop the “beep ball,” a device that helps sight-impaired people play baseball. |
By Jim Lamb, Green Valley News
Local neighbors developed ‘beep ball’ for sight-impaired
With the baseball playoffs kicking into full gear this month, a pair of Green Valley residents dedicated their time to help everyone enjoy America’s Pastime.
These telephone pioneers make Green Valley their home now, after a life of hard work and volunteering, mostly in the Colorado Springs area.
They’re Kay and Vernon Grimes, and they have the distinction of developing the “beep ball,” a device that lets sight-impaired people play a kind of baseball.
Vernon called his sound-making softball “an audio ball for the blind,” but as it took off in popularity it became a beep ball.
A copy of the ball is in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., they said.
Kay and Vernon worked at Mountain Bell’s Colorado Springs location, but occasionally he’d be assigned to an engineering task in Denver, 63 miles away.
He also once worked at Fort Huachuca near Sierra Vista, and they also checked out Tucson when it came time to retire.
But both agreed Green Valley was better than either Sierra Vista or Tucson.
Kay said she was ready to give up on mountain life “when I got lost in my own driveway because of drifting snow.”
She added, “I knew it was time to go.”
They bought house in Continental Vistas, almost sight unseen.
An agent, showing them nearby properties, casually mentioned the house they now call home was for sale as they drove by it.
“That was for me,” Kay said she realized, and they eventually bought it and moved in.
Their back view looks toward some of the Santa Rita Mountain peaks — Mount Hopkins and Mount Wrightson.
Kay and Vernon, both 87, have six children, five grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
In Colorado, Kay and Vernon volunteered with the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind as Telephone Pioneers.
Among other things, Kay would help give hearing tests on newborns checking for those who may be hearing impaired.
She said she always marveled at how smart such tiny babies were and how quickly they could communicate with those around them.
She also tutored at the school, she said.
Vern volunteered three years at the local Titan Missile Museum, where he was helping with some of the wiring.
In their living room, there’s a cabinet holding many things, including cars from a tiny toy train.
“My dad bought it about the time I was born,” Vern said of the 87-year-old train set.
Another memento is a stuffed white dog doll.
Maggie, their white curly haired Bijon friese, won’t have anything to do with it.
When the doll arrived as a gift, Maggie, showed it lots of attention, until Kay explained it was hers, and not the puppy’s. She has left it strictly alone since.
They got Maggie from BARK, the Belle Animal Rescue Kennel in Nogales.
jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749
With the baseball playoffs kicking into full gear this month, a pair of Green Valley residents dedicated their time to help everyone enjoy America’s Pastime.
These telephone pioneers make Green Valley their home now, after a life of hard work and volunteering, mostly in the Colorado Springs area.
They’re Kay and Vernon Grimes, and they have the distinction of developing the “beep ball,” a device that lets sight-impaired people play a kind of baseball.
Vernon called his sound-making softball “an audio ball for the blind,” but as it took off in popularity it became a beep ball.
A copy of the ball is in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., they said.
Kay and Vernon worked at Mountain Bell’s Colorado Springs location, but occasionally he’d be assigned to an engineering task in Denver, 63 miles away.
He also once worked at Fort Huachuca near Sierra Vista, and they also checked out Tucson when it came time to retire.
But both agreed Green Valley was better than either Sierra Vista or Tucson.
Kay said she was ready to give up on mountain life “when I got lost in my own driveway because of drifting snow.”
She added, “I knew it was time to go.”
They bought house in Continental Vistas, almost sight unseen.
An agent, showing them nearby properties, casually mentioned the house they now call home was for sale as they drove by it.
“That was for me,” Kay said she realized, and they eventually bought it and moved in.
Their back view looks toward some of the Santa Rita Mountain peaks — Mount Hopkins and Mount Wrightson.
Kay and Vernon, both 87, have six children, five grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
In Colorado, Kay and Vernon volunteered with the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind as Telephone Pioneers.
Among other things, Kay would help give hearing tests on newborns checking for those who may be hearing impaired.
She said she always marveled at how smart such tiny babies were and how quickly they could communicate with those around them.
She also tutored at the school, she said.
Vern volunteered three years at the local Titan Missile Museum, where he was helping with some of the wiring.
In their living room, there’s a cabinet holding many things, including cars from a tiny toy train.
“My dad bought it about the time I was born,” Vern said of the 87-year-old train set.
Another memento is a stuffed white dog doll.
Maggie, their white curly haired Bijon friese, won’t have anything to do with it.
When the doll arrived as a gift, Maggie, showed it lots of attention, until Kay explained it was hers, and not the puppy’s. She has left it strictly alone since.
They got Maggie from BARK, the Belle Animal Rescue Kennel in Nogales.
jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749
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