Students Surprise Colorblind Teacher With 'EnChroma' Lenses
PHILADELPHIA (CBS)—Honors European studies teacher, Matthew Alzamora tries to lead Methacton High School students to view the world through a different lens.
The walls of his classroom are painted with a vivid mural of a Venice canal and another of Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.
"We take students abroad. When they see Europe and the Eiffel Tour for the first time or the Colosseum, it's kind of neat to see it through their eyes," Alzamora, who has been teaching at the high school since 1999, said.
So he wasn't prepared for the moment his students would quite literally change the way he viewed the world.
"On behalf of myself and all the students, we thank you for being such a great teacher," said freshmen Andrew Bregman, as he led a group of students into the school cafeteria on Monday afternoon to surprise Alzamora with a special gift.
That's where school faculty were holding a meeting and when students surprised Alzamora with $429 EnChroma lenses for colorblindness.
They walked in holding a banner they had all signed, which was designed and donated by Bob Kropp of Mind Fire Creative. It read: "You make our lives more colorful. Now it's time for us to repay the favor!"
You see, Alzamora, a lover of art and architecture, is colorblind.
"I mix up purple and blue. Orange and yellow looks the same. At my daughter's last soccer game, there were ten girls running around," Alzamora said. "It was light pink and dark pink and I couldn't tell who was on whose team."
Initially, students set out to raise about $300 and far exceeded the goal. The remaining money will be used to buy students pizza for participating.
But what they find priceless are the colors Alzamora can now experience.
"It's vivid. It's different," Alzamora said, after putting on the glasses. "These are amazing!"
Alzamora's wife, Patty, along with their two children, 9-year-old Ryan and 7-year-old Emily, also showed up for the surprise.
"I'm excited to see a sunset with him," said Emily.
Alzamora was able to point out blue, yellow, red, and green balloons after previously seeing only dull shades.
And though he had heard about the glasses, he says he never gave them a second thought.
"It was too expensive to even worry about. I was always colorblind so I thought I'd always be," Alzamora said.
That was until Bregman and another freshman student, Maci Chambers, organized the surprise.
"He's a really good guy, always doing a lot for us, and he's a really good teacher so we wanted to do something nice for him," Bregman said.
"I'm going on the France trip with [Mr. Alzamora] this summer and we're going to the Louvre and he'll finally be able to see the art in different colors and I think that's going to be amazing," Chambers said. "He never talks to us like we're just students. He talks to us like we're people, friends."
But what these kids didn't know is this teacher's world had already been colored by their kindness and character.
"These are the nicest kids, we have a special group here at Methacton," Alzamora said. "This is one of the nicest things anyone has ever done."
