The Blind Relief Fund of Philadelphia knows that the holiday season can be particularly harrowing for the poor blind, especially as more and more of our clients find themselves sheltering children and grandchildren. In October 2004, The Blind Relief Fund established an “Adopt-A-Family” program to provide selected clients and their children with gifts from their wish lists, in some cases providing holiday meals.

The program was pioneered by Krista Barkovich, then a neighbor of The Blind Relief Fund’s headquarters in Roxborough. Krista and her husband wanted to do more than make an anonymous donation. She wanted to understand how their contributions were helping real people with real names and faces. So the Adopt-A-Family program was born. Generous contributors are matched with our client families and do their part to help brighten their holidays.

The Adopt-A-Family program continues today. If you would like to be a contributor to The Blind Relief Fund’s Adopt-A-Family program, please contact our offices by December 10 at (215) 487 1444.

The Blind Relief Fund of Philadelphia is pleased to welcome you to our newly refreshed website. Thanks to the generous support of Gene Burns Graphic Design (www.burnsgraphicdesign.com) we have been able to migrate our content to our new site. Photos featured on the site were taken by Ed Eckstein, George Bilyk, and Nema’ Etebar.

Look for regular Feature stories each month beginning in January that will highlight a particular need or a client success story.

Please forward our URL (www.blindrelieffund.org) to others who might have an interest in supporting our organization or need our services. We welcome your comments and suggestions about what works well and what ideas you have to make our site even better. Please leave a comment at the end of the story, or send your feedback to: blindrelieffund@gmail.com.

The Blind Relief Fund of Philadelphia is pleased to introduce new Board Member Dale Parenti.

Dale is a graphic designer and sole proprietor of Dale Parenti Design in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. A 1977 graduate of Yale University, Dale has lived and worked in Philadelphia since 1978. She and her husband Emidio have two grown children.

Prior to launching Dale Parenti Design, Dale was a partner at The Creative Department, Inc., a center-city marketing and communications firm where she was employed for more than 30 years. She developed a close working relationship with Nelson Harris in her role as graphic designer of the Tasty Baking Annual Report from 1981 through 2001.

Dale has been a friend and contributor to The Blind Relief Fund since 1999 when she began designing The Blind Relief Fund Annual Report. As a Board member she will chair the Annual Report committee and be involved in publicity and communications.

Stephen Harris welcomed her saying, “We couldn’t be more pleased to have Dale join us as a Board member. Dale is already intimately knowledgeable about our organization and will bring a unique perspective to the Board.”

Dale commented, “It is an honor to join the Board of such a worthy organization. I am glad to have the opportunity to make a difference in the community where I live and work and raised my family. There are so many people with real needs and The Blind Relief Fund is actively answering them every day.”