Scarsdale Resident Makes Vision Walk Her Mission

Wendy Kreisberg of Scarsdale turned her son Jeremy’s potential loss of sight into a vision of her own. This Sunday she and other individuals nationwide will participate in a Vision Walk to raise funds for the Foundation Fighting Blindness.

Kreisberg began walking for the Foundation three years ago when Jeremy, now 23 and a law student at Harvard University, was first diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease, which has already taken quite a bit of his peripheral vision.

“The day of his diagnosis was probably the worst day in my life,” she said. “It was the most devastating thing. The foundation gave me a direction. It gave me a place to put my sorrow into something productive.”

Kreisberg said she needed to find a way to try to help her son, since at the moment there is no cure for the disease. “I decided one of the ways is to raise money to help the foundation do the research for a cure,” she said.

A walker for the past two years, Kreisberg is the chair of this year’s Vision Walk in Westchester on Sunday, Oct. 30, from 9 a.m. to noon, at the Kensico Dam in Valhalla. She said it is a wonderfully family-friendly event that includes children walking in costume since it is so close to Halloween. Face painters, balloons and candy round out the day.

Kreisberg is a preschool teacher at Temple Israel Nursery School in White Plains. She said the families and staff at the school have been incredibly supportive of her work with Foundation Fighting Blindness. Many of the families and staff join in the walk, making it the school’s October mitzvah (good deed) project.

The Westchester-Fairfield Walk is also sponsored by several local organizations: the Eye Gallery, the White Plains PBA and Carl Zeiss. Eye Design and Bond Animal Hospital are sponsoring Kreisberg’s team.

Kreisberg said her attitude about her son’s disease has changed over the years. “There is so much research going on right now,” she said. “Jeremy is very positive right now,  as I am. I strive to be more like him. He is totally my hero.”

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