Message from the President

Message from the President

Each year the Conklin Davis Center serves over 500 individuals giving them the self confidence to overcome the obstacles vision loss presents. Our students learn to use computers, seniors gain independence by learning how to take buses, teenagers prepare for college or gain skills to seek jobs in the community. Children are learning the skills necessary to succeed in school.

The skills we teach are often practical such as cooking, maintaining a home, learning to read newspapers or mail and traveling outside of the home. But even more important is the ability to have a positive outlook on life. Isolation leads to depression and giving people with vision loss emotional support helps them to tap into their own inner resources and realize their potential. Helping our students to believe in themselves in order to overcome the obstacles of blindness is an essential component of our program.

The famous violinist, Yitzchak Perlman, in the middle of a performance at Lincoln Center had one of four strings suddenly pop. Instead of stopping the concert, he played on 3 strings like no one ever played before. When questioned by the media afterward, his comments were, “sometimes in life you have to make the music with the strings you have left”.

This is our mission, to help blind people make the music of life with what they have remaining. And we have so many successes, adults with vision loss in all walks of life are getting back to work or enjoying retirement, teens are going on to higher education and children are learning the skills to become successful in school.

We hope you join our mission of making life’s music for our blind and visually impaired clients.

Thank you to all of you who have supported this vital mission of the Conklin Davis Center for the Visually Impaired this past year.

Ronee David, President/CEO

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