On Wednesday August 3, staff from the Carl D. Perkins Job Corps Center along with several other business and community members attended the “Esight4Blake” fundraiser at Foxy Fitness in Prestonsburg, KY. Prestonsburg resident Blake Fannin, has been legally blind since birth, with a diagnosis called optic nerve hypoplasia, which means that that Blake has almost no vision because of the optic nerves are under developed.

Blake’s mother Sonya Roberts saw an ad for Esight made by a company in Canada. .It is the only patented, assistive device of its kind. It is wearable, hands-free, eye glasses that are basically a real-time edit of what the wearer the device is seeing. The headset houses a small camera that captures everything the eSight user is looking at. The captured live video stream is instantly sent to a powerful computer that uses proprietary software to process each pixel of video captured by the camera.

After making arrangements to take her son to Indiana for a demonstration. During this time Blake could see letters from across the room with the glasses he would not have been able to do this. the technology would allow him to become more independent, confident and live a more productive life. His medical insurance does not cover the $15,000 cost for the glasses. The community has begun a series of fundraising events for the family to reach the $15,000 goal for the glasses.

Perkins was proud to be a part of the event, and will continue to be involved in other events for Esigh4Blake.