Songs for Sight, a series of benefit concerts supporting the University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation, has been awarded the inaugural Hall Thompson Hero for Sight Award by Sight Savers America.The award is in honor of Hall W. Thompson, whose legacy of work played an integral role in the expansion of Sight Savers America’s eye-care program, which provides comprehensive vision care for more than 40,000 children each year. Thompson’s belief that every child in Alabama should have an equal opportunity for good vision led him to join the Sight Savers America Board of Trustees and help make that belief a reality.
Songs for Sight embodies the ideals of the Hero for Sight Award by helping children and teens with low vision in a variety of ways. In addition to youth support-group activities, the funds raised by Songs for Sight help the Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation provide eligible patients electronic video-magnification devices, orientation and mobility services and bioptic driving devices.
Sight Savers has commissioned an original piece of art by philanthropic artist Jeff Hanson, who is visually impaired, to commemorate the Hall Thompson Hero for Sight Award. It will be displayed later this year in the UAB Callahan Eye Hospital.
Songs for Sight was founded in 2006 by Alie B. Gorrie, a patient of the UAB Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation, to raise awareness and understanding of low vision.