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Scottyoak2 (talk | contribs) Importing Wikidata short description: "American activist" |
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{{Short description|American activist}}
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[[File:Mildred weisenfeld-fight for sight.jpg|thumb|right|225px|Fight for Sight - National Council to Combat Blindness Founder, Mildred Weisenfeld]]
'''Mildred Mosler Weisenfeld''' (1921
==Background==
At age 15, Weisenfeld began to lose her vision to degenerative eye disease [[retinitis pigmentosa]] (RP). Although she completed high school and went on to [[Brooklyn College]], her eyesight worsened and her treatment options were few despite visiting more than 100 specialists in the U.S. and Europe. Weisenfeld was surprised to find that most eye and vision funding went into care for the blind rather than treatments or research. As she continued to search for treatment, she was urged by many of the eye specialists to encourage funding of research for eye disease, which totaled just a few thousand annually around World War II.<ref name=Weisenfeld>{{cite news |first=JS |last=Felix
In 1946, 10 years after she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, Weisenfeld founded the National Council to Combat Blindness (NCCB), New York, at age 25 with $8 and no office.<ref name=Girl>{{cite news |first=Bob |last=Consadine
Addressing how other nonprofits focused on adjusting people to their condition of vision problems, Weisenfeld was quoted May 23, 1948, in the ''[[New York Mirror]]'' as saying "something must be done beyond giving them a dog, a cane, or a Braille book. We must give those who need it the hope that science is actively probing the affliction robbing them of their sight." Weisenfeld herself never learned Braille or used a cane or a guide dog.
Known for her audacity (friends would call it chutzpah), Weisenfeld helped put vision research on the national agenda when she coordinated testimony on eye research before the House in 1949, which led Congress to recognize eye disease and create the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Blindness, and the 1968 establishment of the [[National Eye Institute]] in the [[National Institutes of Health]].<ref name=obituary>{{cite news |first=Wolfgang |last=Saxon
Over the decades as Fight for Sight's executive director, Weisenfeld paid herself no salary (she lived on family money) and tirelessly worked six- or seven-day weeks to raise millions of dollars for research and launch the careers of many prominent vision researchers through Fight for Sight and its local women's leagues in New York (Manhattan; Brooklyn: Park Circle, Bensonhurst, Shorefront; Queens: North Shore, Seaside; Bronx, Long Island), Northern NJ, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Greater, Main Line, Cheltenham, and Northeast) and Florida (South Palm Beach, Hollywood, Delray, Deerfield Beach, Miami).<ref name="obituary"/> [[Fight for Sight (U.S.)|Fight for Sight]] celebrates its 65th anniversary in 2011.
==1950s==
Weisenfeld was well connected with numerous celebrities and politicians to draw attention to her organization and its annual fundraiser the "Lights On" variety show from 1949 into the early 1990s, first led by [[Milton Berle]], and later included [[Bob Hope]], [[Barbra Streisand]],<ref>
Along with blind Attorney General William E. Powers, Weisenfeld presented an original [[Norman Rockwell]] painting to President [[Harry Truman]] on
Also in 1950, working with wealthy New York entrepreneur [[Mary Lasker]], Weisenfeld encouraged the addition of the word "blindness" to the founding title of The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Blindness (NINDB), now the [[National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke]].<ref name=oral>{{cite news |first=Sally Smith |last=Hughes, PhD
According to the ''[[New York World-Telegram & Sun]]'' in a 1954 interview with Weisenfeld, $150 million was spent in the U.S. annually by private and public funds to support the blind, but just $1.35 million on eye research.
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==Honors==
Many honors were bestowed upon Weisenfeld in tribute to her lifelong work. In 1951, Weisenfeld was presented with the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for community service. On the 25th anniversary of Fight for Sight in 1971, President [[Richard Nixon]] and New York City Mayor [[John Lindsay]] recognized Weisenfeld's work with congratulatory letters. In 1975, the Academy of Ophthalmology awarded Weisenfeld its first award given to a lay person, for her contributions to the field.<ref name="Weisenfeld"/> The industry group ARVO (Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology) established the Weisenfeld Award for Excellence in Ophthalmology in 1986, to recognize individuals for scholarly contributions to clinical ophthalmology.<ref name="ARVO Weisenfeld Award">{{cite web |url=http://www.arvo.org/EWEB/dynamicpage.aspx?site=arvo2&webcode=AwardsDescriptions |title=ARVO Weisenfeld Award |
Fight for Sight was led by Weisenfeld for 50 years, until she fell into ill health in 1996. An avid smoker, Weisenfeld died a year later at age 76 from complications of lung cancer.<ref name="obituary"/>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://www.fightforsight.org/ Fight for Sight
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weisenfeld, Mildred}}
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:1921 births]]
[[Category:1997 deaths]]
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[[Category:Brooklyn College alumni]]
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