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Top Youth Volunteers In Each State Selected In 18th Annual National Awards Program
Louie McGee
State Honoree
Louie McGee, 12, of St. Paul, Minn., a sixth-grader at Highland Catholic School, leads a team that has raised more than $40,000 over the past six years by participating in an annual fundraising walk to fight diseases that cause blindness, like the one that afflicts him. He was diagnosed at age 5 with a rare retinal ailment that causes a loss of central vision. "This disease steadily steals my vision," said Louie. "Since there is no treatment or cure, it is very important that I work to raise money for science and research to preserve and restore my vision – and that of others."
Soon after being diagnosed, Louie and his family learned about the Foundation Fighting Blindness and its yearly 5K fundraising "VisionWalk" in the Twin Cities. Louie decided to form a team to participate, and has since collected over $40,000 for the foundation. For the past two years, he has served as youth chair of the entire fundraiser. Louie also organized a "Dining in the Dark" event in his school cafeteria last fall to raise money and give fellow students a glimpse into the lives of the visually impaired; 300 kids attended and ate with special light-blocking masks. "I think kids around me know now that it's a lot harder to do things when you can't see well," said Louie.
Click here for the National Press Release.
Celebrating Excellence
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Chapter Leader and 2012 VisionWalk Chair Mark Valenziano and Events Director Michele DiVincenzo accepted the Outstanding VisionWalk Award on behalf of the Twin Cities VisionWalk. |
The Twin Cities VisionWalk was presented with the Foundation’s Member Excellence Outstanding VisionWalk Award for a large market at the VISIONS 2012 national conference in Minneapolis in June. The honor, which recognizes sustained high achievement of a VisionWalk, acknowledges the event’s consistent success as one of the largest fall walks. Congratulations to all of the walk chairs, team captains and participants!
Chapter Highlights
The Northern Lights (Minneapolis/St. Paul) Chapter is one of FFB’s longest standing hubs of community outreach, support, activism and fund raising. For more than 10 years, Julie Anderson has led a group of fellow volunteers on a very specific mission: to have a say in how fast treatments come to the table. Julie and the rest of the Northern Lights board and chapter members welcome new board members, chapter members and volunteers in this effort.
“There is a sense of exhilaration in knowing you are making a difference,” Julie says. “For me personally, the worst thing wouldn’t be going blind, rather, it would be looking back 10 years from now and know that I did nothing but worry.”
FFB Chapters, like the Northern Lights Chapter, activate FFB’s mission in communities across the US. The urgent mission of the Foundation Fighting Blindness is to drive the research that will provide preventions, treatments and cures for the people affected by retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, Usher syndrome and the entire spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases.
Four to five times each year, the Northern Lights Chapter gathers individuals concerned with retinal degenerative diseases and provides access to retinal specialists and helpful information from panels of experts in genetics, assistive technologies, and nutrition. Each meeting opens with breaking news in retinal research.
The news in retinal research has been extraordinary in 2008. Never before have there been so many potential therapies for blinding retinal degenerative diseases in human clinical trials. FFB’s unyielding pursuit of treatments and cures has launched retinal research into an era of unprecedented promise. And the Northern Lights Chapter plays a pivotal role in accelerating the pace of scientific discovery through its wildly successful annual Twin Cities VisionWalk. In just its first two years, the Twin Cities VisionWalk has raised almost $300,000 to fuel sight-saving research, innovation and results.
Julie credits VisionWalk for encouraging participation and increasing activity in the Northern Lights Chapter. “The Foundation’s VisionWalk enabled us to get in there and be part of the solution. It gives you a feeling of power over your disease.”
Interested in joining the Northern Lights Chapter? Please call Julie Anderson at 763-416-3900 or Michele DiVincenzo at the Foundation's Midwest Regional Office, at 847-680-0100. |
