Image of a child at a playground wearing sunglasses

Jaron Casillas wears his new glasses outside for the first time.

Courtesy of Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District

Changing Colors

Jaron Casillas sees the world differently than most people. He’s one of about 12 million Americans who were born colorblind. That doesn’t mean he sees everything in black and white. He just has trouble differentiating certain colors, like red from green and blue from purple. 

“Sometimes when I look at two colors that you would say are different, I would say they’re the exact same,” explains the fifth-grader from Colleyville, Texas.

To Jaron, a sunrise looks green and grass looks red.

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To a person who’s colorblind, the bunch of balloons on the left may look similar to the balloons on the right.

An Act of Kindness

Jaron’s classmates at Glenhope Elementary School didn’t know he was colorblind until a class discussion in October. When asked to name his favorite color, Jaron said he didn’t know. 

His classmates were surprised that Jaron couldn’t see all the colors they can. So they came up with a plan: They’d buy him special glasses for people who are colorblind. But they had to raise the money first. The glasses cost nearly $200.

“I was touched that they were inspired to do something,” says Christina Hayes, Jaron’s teacher.

The students used their allowance money and got their parents to contribute too. The class ended up raising enough money to buy Jaron two pairs of glasses—one to wear indoors and another to wear outdoors. 

They surprised him with the gifts on October 19. Jaron says it was the happiest day of his life. He was amazed at how everything changed the moment he put on the glasses. 

“I just couldn’t stop staring at this red marker,” he recalls. “It looked so different.”

Jaron is still overwhelmed by his classmates’ generosity.

“I couldn’t believe they had done that for me,” he says. “They’re the kindest people in the world.”

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