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Black Tie International:
Foundation
Fighting Blindness
Building Toward a Cure Dinner
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Building Toward a
Cure
Dinner Chairs Iris (left)
and Reuven Spiegel (second from right) with their three
children Oren, Gal and Tali (left to right). The March 7
event raised over $600,000 to benefit the Foundation
Fighting Blindness and honored Ron Yeffet,
president and CEO, GSR Concrete Tov, LLC; and Karen
Holopigian, Ph.D., Research professor, Department of
Ophthalmology, New York University School of Medicine.
Photo
by:
Zach Baudoin
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Foundation Fighting
Blindness Recognizes New York Visionaries At ‘Building
Toward A Cure’ Gala In Support Of Sight-Saving Research
Late NYC
Disabilities Commissioner Matthew P. Sapolin
Honored for Lifetime Achievement
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The
Foundation Fighting Blindness, a national nonprofit
focused on driving sight-saving research, honored Ron Yeffet,
President and CEO, GSR Concrete Tov, LLC; and Karen
Holopigian, Ph.D., Research Professor, Department of
Ophthalmology, New York University School of Medicine, with
Visionary Awards at Building Toward a Cure at the Plaza
Hotel on March 7. Around 300 people attended to raise over
$600,000 for critical research funds toward preventions,
treatments and cures for vision-robbing retinal degenerative
diseases like macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa
(RP), Usher syndrome, and other related conditions.
The Foundation also presented a
Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of the late Matthew P.
Sapolin, who served as the first-ever commissioner for the
Mayor’s Office for People With Disabilities under the
Bloomberg administration from 2006 until he passed away from
cancer on November 2011. Blind from juvenile cancer of the
eye, Sapolin’s advocacy for New York City’s disabled led to
a new mentorship program, and pushed for more accommodating
buildings, taxis and sidewalks around the city.
Building Toward a Cure Dinner Chairs
and Foundation Fighting Blindness National Trustees Iris and
Reuven Spiegel became involved because their daughter Tali
is affected with
RP, a retinal disease characterized by night blindness
and a progressive loss of peripheral vision.
Foundation-funded researchers in Israel have identified the
gene responsible for Tali’s vision loss, which opens the
door for potential gene therapy and other treatments. Mr.
Spiegel, president and CEO of Israel Discount Bank, was
honored with the Foundation’s Visionary Award in 2010. Also
chairing Building Toward a Cure is Foundation Fighting
Blindness Board Director and Paul Hastings Senior Council of
Corporate Development Daniel G. Bergstein, who has three
generations of family members affected with RP. Foundation
Chairman Gordon Gund addressed guests about the progress of
retinal research since he co-founded the organization over
40 years ago.
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. In its 40-year history, 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 wide variety
of retinal degenerative diseases, and proving a cure is in
sight. With a network of nearly 50 chapters, the Foundation
also provides support, education and resources to affected
individuals and their families in communities across the
country.
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