Hoffman Estates boy wins Illinois title for 'Most beautiful eyes'

Sabrina Hirschfeld knew immediately after a friend told her over Facebook about a ‘most beautiful eyes' contest that she had to put her 2-year-old son, Bryce, in the running.

“We always get people, strangers in a store, (saying) ‘look at his eyes, look at his eyes!' It's always like the first thing anybody says when they see our child,” the Hoffman Estates resident said.

Sponsored by Prevent Blindness America, the national contest was open to children 17 and younger. The 49 first-round winners were determined by online voting at preventblindness.org.

Bryce claimed the Illinois title, winning him a pair of sunglasses and a spot in the final round of judging.

“We were kind of surprised, but we were super excited too,” Sabrina said.

Celebrity judges, including Larry King, former Chicago Cub Derrek Lee and NASA astronaut Walter Cunningham, will pick three national finalists out of the state winners. Their choices will be announced in November.

“It's gonna be tough,” Sabrina said of the final round, adding that she is curious to see if the judges will pick children with blue or green eyes.

The three national finalists will receive a trip to Chicago to attend an awards banquet on Nov. 18, where the overall winner will be announced.

The national winner will receive a $25,000 college scholarship and be the face of the organization's “Star Pupils” program, which focuses on children's eye health and safety, for a year. Second and third place winners also receive scholarships, for $4,000 and $2,000 respectively.

“That's a huge help to any family because college is so expensive,” Sabrina said. “That would be a huge financial burden lifted.”

But the Hirschfelds weren't thinking about the scholarships when they enrolled Bryce in the contest.

“It was really more because everybody raves about his eyes,” Sabrina said. “The scholarship is really an extra, added bonus, if he was able to win that.”