A group of students at a Texas elementary school recently went above and beyond for one of their 10-year-old classmates who is color blind.
Jaron Casillas, a fifth-grader at Glenhope Elementary School in Colleyville, grew up colorblind. “When Jaron first spoke,” Lindsay Casillas, Jaron’s mom, tells PEOPLE, “he couldn’t tell us the color of the object, but I knew he was color blind one morning as I was driving under a particularly spectacular sunrise in Texas. I heard his little voice from the seat behind me saying: ‘Look, mom! Look at the beautiful green sun!’”
According to the National Eye Institute, color blindness is a condition in which a person sees colors differently than most people. A common type of color vision deficiency is the inability to distinguish between red and green, or when blue and yellow look the same. There is no cure, but special glasses and contact lenses can help people see the differences, according to the institute.
One day, during a class discussion, Jaron brought up his condition and told his classmates that he sees gray when most people see purple, green, and blue. When teacher Christina Hayes asked him if there were special glasses for people who are color blind, Jaron said yes, but they were expensive.
Jaron Casillas as a very young child, pointing to the sky.
Courtesy of Lindsay Casillas
Meet the Kindest People in America: Good Samaritans make their communities — and the world — a better place
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
After class, Jaron’s classmates approached Hayes privately and asked if they could raise money to buy Jaron those special glasses. As ABC affiliate WFAA reported, they combined their pocket money with donations and together raised enough money to buy two pairs of special glasses: one for indoors and one for outdoors.
A few days after the initial discussion, the class surprised Jaron with his new glasses on Thursday, and Jaron’s parents attended the presentation. “They donated their own pocket money, good luck, because they love you and they care about you,” Hayes told Jaron, according to WFAA.
Restaurant worker digs through trash to find missing denture — then gets $1,000 kindness reward
“To witness the outpouring of compassion for Jaron and the untapped joy on the faces of so many children chanting his name was a moment I will never forget,” Lindsay later told PEOPLE.
“As a mom, you want to be there for all of your child’s firsts,” she adds. “The first step, the first word, the first taste of ice cream. It felt like I was waiting for a similar moment, but this time Jaron’s dad and I were gathered with dozens of faces filled with love and anticipation for their received gift… and a new ‘first’ for their friend.”
Lindsay also says that Jaron will have to relearn the names of the colors and shades he associated with certain objects, especially when he previously described the grass as “red.” “However, after we picked him up from school, Jaron, still beaming and wearing glasses, announced that his classmates had already solved it,” she adds. “One friend has volunteered to make cards and work with him on his primary colors, and another wants to take the lead on the secondary colors.”
Teenagers raise money for school janitor, 80, who returned to work after retirement to afford increased rent
As he received his new glasses in class, Jaron said, according to NBC affiliate KXAS, “I’m very very excited because I know my friends are real friends because they did this for me. I can’t believe this is happening !”
For Lindsay, this moment provided a deeper lesson than the glasses themselves. “So many children who bring their pocket money in their hands,” she tells PEOPLE, “and unite in a project of kindness and giving, shows me that there is kindness in the world and that there is kindness in the hearts of the next generation. . This is the story we talk about around the table.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education