If you're out in the countryside next month, that rumble you might hear will be the sound of 600 motorcyclists roaring down the road in Alberta's 29th Ride for Sight.
Among them will be Jerry Kubik, whose eight-year-old granddaughter has Usher syndrome, which affects vision, hearing and balance.
Born deaf, Rose McDougald is losing her sight. And so far, there is no cure. "We had hoped she'd have decent eyesight until her early teens but it's getting quite bad now," says Kubik. "She's pretty well got strictly tunnel vision right now."
Her balance problems have made it even more difficult for her to navigate her way around. "Her world is getting smaller," says Kubik. "As soon as the sun starts to go down and light deteriorates, she's just basically lost."
When his granddaughter was born, Kubik had never heard of Usher syndrome. Now the long-time motorcyclist personally raises up to $10,000 a year in the annual Ride for Sight, the single largest research fund-raising initiative for vision globally.
Over the years, Ride for Sight runs across the country have raised more than $18 million for the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FBB).
And every penny raised by Ride for Sight goes to the foundation, thanks to generous donors and numerous dedicated volunteers. This year, for the second year in a row, the Alberta contingent is rumbling down to the Stoney Nakoda Resort and Casino west of Calgary on June 10 for a weekend of festivities, including a show 'n shine, bike rodeos, demo rides and the Blues Brothers Revue.
"We put this on to say thank you and to encourage people (to donate)," says John Chrusch, chair of the Alberta Ride for Sight. "There's a sense of camaraderie. Everybody's doing this with a single objective in mind and that's to raise money for eye research."
Last year, Ride for Sight raised almost $1-million nationally, including more than $160,000 in Alberta.
"I don't know how all our guys keep clicking along but they do," Chrusch marvels, adding that many charities face both volunteer and donor fatigue.
"It's probably the last thing that most people would want to lose -- their vision. A lot of these (volunteers) have somebody in their family or know somebody quite well who's either lost their vision or is losing their vision. That's why they're involved."
Even the scientists who review the research projects that are proposed to the FBB for funding volunteer their time to do such assessments.
And Alberta scientists have received more than their per capita share of FBB funding, says Dr. Bill Stell, director of research programs for the FBB and a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Calgary.
A University of Alberta professor is using zebra fish, for instance, to learn more about an eye disease called Laber congenital amaurosis -- a loss of retinal function.
"He's replicating the human problem in these fish," explains Stell. "Because they're inexpensive, easy to raise and easy to manipulate genetically, it's possible to make advances much more rapidly ... than you would with a mouse."
In Calgary, a post-doctoral fellow and a grad student are doing retinal research. Another Calgary researcher discovered two of the genes that cause congenital stationary night blindness, a rare family of conditions that is rampant in some Alberta Mennonite colonies.
This research, of course, would be a lot harder without Ride for Sight.
Kubik hopes that, one day, Rose will get her eyesight back. "If there was a cure for it, it would be wonderful."
To donate, check out rideforsight.com.
Among them will be Jerry Kubik, whose eight-year-old granddaughter has Usher syndrome, which affects vision, hearing and balance.
Born deaf, Rose McDougald is losing her sight. And so far, there is no cure. "We had hoped she'd have decent eyesight until her early teens but it's getting quite bad now," says Kubik. "She's pretty well got strictly tunnel vision right now."
Her balance problems have made it even more difficult for her to navigate her way around. "Her world is getting smaller," says Kubik. "As soon as the sun starts to go down and light deteriorates, she's just basically lost."
When his granddaughter was born, Kubik had never heard of Usher syndrome. Now the long-time motorcyclist personally raises up to $10,000 a year in the annual Ride for Sight, the single largest research fund-raising initiative for vision globally.
Over the years, Ride for Sight runs across the country have raised more than $18 million for the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FBB).
And every penny raised by Ride for Sight goes to the foundation, thanks to generous donors and numerous dedicated volunteers. This year, for the second year in a row, the Alberta contingent is rumbling down to the Stoney Nakoda Resort and Casino west of Calgary on June 10 for a weekend of festivities, including a show 'n shine, bike rodeos, demo rides and the Blues Brothers Revue.
"We put this on to say thank you and to encourage people (to donate)," says John Chrusch, chair of the Alberta Ride for Sight. "There's a sense of camaraderie. Everybody's doing this with a single objective in mind and that's to raise money for eye research."
Last year, Ride for Sight raised almost $1-million nationally, including more than $160,000 in Alberta.
"I don't know how all our guys keep clicking along but they do," Chrusch marvels, adding that many charities face both volunteer and donor fatigue.
"It's probably the last thing that most people would want to lose -- their vision. A lot of these (volunteers) have somebody in their family or know somebody quite well who's either lost their vision or is losing their vision. That's why they're involved."
Even the scientists who review the research projects that are proposed to the FBB for funding volunteer their time to do such assessments.
And Alberta scientists have received more than their per capita share of FBB funding, says Dr. Bill Stell, director of research programs for the FBB and a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Calgary.
A University of Alberta professor is using zebra fish, for instance, to learn more about an eye disease called Laber congenital amaurosis -- a loss of retinal function.
"He's replicating the human problem in these fish," explains Stell. "Because they're inexpensive, easy to raise and easy to manipulate genetically, it's possible to make advances much more rapidly ... than you would with a mouse."
In Calgary, a post-doctoral fellow and a grad student are doing retinal research. Another Calgary researcher discovered two of the genes that cause congenital stationary night blindness, a rare family of conditions that is rampant in some Alberta Mennonite colonies.
This research, of course, would be a lot harder without Ride for Sight.
Kubik hopes that, one day, Rose will get her eyesight back. "If there was a cure for it, it would be wonderful."
To donate, check out rideforsight.com.
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