**Event Photos Downloadable Here (Credit: Laci A. Eberle, Eau Claire, WI)**
Madison, WI — The Foundation Fighting Blindness, a national nonprofit focused on vision-saving research, honored University of Wisconsin-Madison Men’s Basketball Coach Bo Ryan and University of Wisconsin-Madison McPherson Eye Research Institute Director David Gamm, M.D., Ph.D., at the inaugural Madison Dining in the Dark Visionary Awards Dinner on Sept. 12 at the Madison Concourse Hotel. The event raised $250,000 toward the Foundation’s research efforts into preventions, treatments and cures for sight-robbing retinal degenerative diseases including macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa (RP), Usher syndrome, and related conditions. The voice of Badger athletics, Matt Lepay, served as master of ceremonies.
Dining in the Dark is a distinctive sensory awareness experience in which guests participate in an unforgettable dining adventure, in complete darkness. For about 30 minutes, more than 200 attendees enjoyed their entrée using only their senses of smell, sound, taste, and touch, to get a glimpse into the lives of the blind. Visually impaired servers, who were trained specifically for the dinner to use a system of ropes and stanchions, shared their stories and helped guests navigate through this new culinary journey. Created in Germany, Dining in the Dark is a one-of-a kind concept that has been enjoyed by many people across Europe before moving to America in 2005. The event’s Visionary Sponsor was the David G. and Nancy B. Walsh Family Foundation.
“Reactions to Dining in the Dark are truly powerful because people often don’t realize the daily challenges of living with low to no vision. We’re thrilled to recognize UW excellence in the lab and on the basketball court to support research in promising areas like gene therapy and stem cells that offer hope to the more than 10 million Americans affected with retinal diseases,” said Dining in the Dark Co-Chair and Foundation Board Member David Walsh, of Madison, who is a retired partner specializing in telecommunications law with Foley & Lardner, and past-president and current member of the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents. Walsh has long been motivated in the fight against blindness because he and wife Nancy have two children affected with Usher syndrome, a genetic condition that leads to both hearing and vision loss.
Visionary Award Honoree Dr. David Gamm’s innovative work in deriving retinal cells from human stem cells is internationally recognized as his lab strives to treat blinding diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. A Foundation-funded researcher, Dr. Gamm’s lab has successfully created retinal tissue from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells produced from a patient’s skin and blood cells. Also a pediatric ophthalmologist at UW Health, Dr. Gamm is an associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences and an investigator in the Waisman Center Stem Cell Research Program. Presenting the Visionary Award to Dr. Gamm was Robert N. Golden, M.D., Dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
Also receiving the Foundation’s Visionary Award was Badger men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan, whose impressive career includes 28 years in the league and more than 600 all-time wins. In 11 productive seasons at UW, Ryan has lifted the program and led the team to 11 NCAA Tournaments, won nearly 270 games, and gained the title of UW’s all-time wins leader. He is inspired to help support sight-saving research because the daughter of his longtime agent Tim Valentyn, also the sister of former Badgers Guard Brett Valentyn, is affected with a rare disorder called Kearns-Sayre syndrome that involves retinal degeneration and other symptoms throughout the body. Tim’s wife and Brett’s mother Nancy Valentyn, of Verona, co-chaired the Dining in the Dark with Walsh, hopeful that research will lead to treatments for her daughter Kenzi. Presenting the Visionary Award to Ryan was Director of Athletics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Barry Alvarez.
About Foundation Fighting Blindness
The Foundation Fighting Blindness is a national nonprofit driving research that will lead to preventions, treatments and cures for retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, Usher syndrome and the entire spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases that affect more than 10 million Americans. Since 1971, the Foundation has raised more than $450 million as the leading non-governmental funder of retinal research. Breakthrough Foundation-funded studies using gene therapy have restored significant vision in children and young adults who were previously blind, paving the way for using this method to treat a variety of retinal degenerative diseases, and proving a cure is in sight. With a network of nearly 50 chapters, the Foundation also provides support and resources to affected individuals and their families in communities across the country.
