About Us
What would you do if your child was born blind? Who would you turn to for help?
Children with blindness, visual impairments and multi-impairments share the same needs as all children for nurturing, stimulation and education. Blind Children’s Fund has been “Helping Blind Children Learn To Live In A World They Cannot See” for over thirty years.
In 1963, a child named Bea was born without eyes. One of our founders, Sherry Raynor, was the mother of that child. As an educator, she knew that a child’s primary learning stage is from birth to seven. If she waited for her daughter to start school to form her development and education, she knew her daughter would be far behind other children. She also knew that children with vision learn by watching others around them. Her daughter could learn, but she needed to do it differently. Sherry and co-founders Donna Heiner and Carol Rottman spent seven years developing a national model preschool program for children who were blind. During this time they discovered that there was no central information resource for parents or teachers and that existing blind organizations were not structured to fill the needs of blind or visually impaired preschool children. Therefore they decided to fill this need themselves. As a result of their efforts, Sherry’s daughter Bea is now an independent woman. She holds her Masters degree in social work, is also a massage therapist and is a musician and a poet.
Our organization was first incorporated as a non-profit in 1978 as the International Institute for the Visually Impaired, Birth to Seven, Inc. and it functioned with volunteers. In 1984 the name was changed to Blind Children’s Fund (BCF). By 1985 BCF recognized that the need for information and referral services exceeded what could be done by volunteers and it started fundraising to support the hiring of a staff. Current staff includes the executive director, Karla Storrer, and one administrative assistant with experts on call as needed.
Over the course of the last 30 years Blind Children’s Fund has become recognized as a resource for information, materials and services not only in the United States, but also in all US Territories and in over 90 other countries. The majority of requests emanate from the United States and its territories, however, we are in constant contact with colleagues overseas for information sharing. Many requests come from developing countries where services are nonexistent or just starting.
As we look to the future, BCF hopes to become a better resource for families, their children, and their teachers. However that translates into future activities, we will remain true to our mission of helping blind children learn to live in a world they cannot see.
