Foundation Fighting Blindness Raises $712,000 at Dining in the Dark Event

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The Foundation Fighting Blindness’ San Francisco fundraising awards dinner included 380 guests coming together for a Dining in the Dark experience. The 30 minute meal allowed guests to eat and drink in complete darkness, in order to experience blindness firsthand.

The fundraising awards dinner included servers who were visually impaired as well, and Janice Lehrer-Stein, past dinner chair and current vice chair of the president’s National Council on Disability, said, “You can’t create awareness and understanding as much as a personal experience can. Everyone in this room will be temporarily blind.”

The event, which took place on April 5, raised $712,000 during a silent auction following the Dining in the Dark experience. Honorees at the event included Anne Wojcicki,, CEO and co-founder of DNA biotech company 23andMe, and Genentech Ophthalmology Vice President Dr. Anthony P. Adamis for their work on treating and fighting eye disease.

Wojcicki said of the need for social networking and revolutionizing health care, “That’s why we started 23andMe. We didn’t want to wait anymore for the NIH, government or pharmaceutical companies to solve our problems.”

Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, and Google Ventures’ managing partner Bill Maris were also in attendance.

Source: SF Gate

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