The premiere of '23 Blast', a film about a blind Corbin football player, raised awareness and funds to help other visually impaired children.
The movie brought cheers from the audience last night at the Kentucky Theatre and resonated with many, like Lexington native Rebecca Davis. “My daughter has cortical visual impairment which is a vision processing issue that has more to do with your brain than your eyes. But she also has optic nerve atrophy which means that her optic nerves are not 100% developed.”
It was a challenge for the whole family. “I had this little blind baby and I did not know how to teach her.” Davis said “If you’re a typically sighted parent, bringing a child into the world who can’t see, it doesn’t come naturally. And there’s a tremendous amount of grief and despair and you don’t even know where to begin. We were in Bloomington Indiana and I was looking for services and I was told they just didn’t have them.”
Davis searched for help and found it back in her home state of Kentucky, where little Eliza began critical therapy through Visually Impaired Preschool Services also known as VIPS. “I drove my daughter from Bloomington to Louisville every week for two years to get her those early intervention services. Kentucky was ahead of the game.”
Eliza’s vision has improved as she’s gotten older. Davis says that early intervention was key. “Now when we go into new and strange places she lets go of my hand and takes off which is both a blessing and a curse” Davis laughed. “Which means that she’s comfortable exploring which tells me she sees a lot more than anyone ever expected her to.”
She was so inspired by the progress made by her daughter, who is now eight; Davis wanted to ensure other families in her new home state could get the care they so desperately needed, and were legally entitled to. “I lobbied for them to open an office in Indiana and we did that in 2011 so we’re in our fourth year now.”
As for the movie, Davis said she hopes it will be a message that there are laws in place to help all children with disabilities. For more information on Visually Impaired Preschool Services, go to VIPS dot org.