The Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDC) has been named as the official charity of Silmo Sydney, which runs from 9–11 March 2017.
Gary Fitz-Roy, Managing Director of Expertise Events which is organising Silmo Sydney said the Institute will “receive funding and have a presence throughout the three-day show”. He said the RIDC had experienced a 100 per cent increase in enrolments of vision impaired children over the past seven years.
Mr. Fitz-Roy said Expertise Events has a long history of supporting charitable organisations.
“When presented with the chance, we always get behind organisations or industry bodies which have the fundamental objective of increasing the health of the community,” said Mr. Fitz-Roy, adding “When the opportunity arose to organise an event that infuses health and fashion, we jumped at the chance.”
Earlier this year Expertise Events’ established the Craft for Kids Foundation, which supports charities including Variety Club NSW, The Smith Family, Royal Far West Children’s Home, BoysTown and Stewart House.
Mr. Fitz-Roy was recognised by Rotary Foundation as a Paul Harris Fellow, having facilitated a nationwide initiative, the Macular Degeneration Community Awareness Program in 2012 which distributed 500,000 Amsler grids, along with free information, to people at risk of the eye disease. “We worked with Rotary Club Victoria member, Jeannie Handsaker, to distribute the cards at our craft events and set up a designated area where eye specialists had the opportunity to educate people on how to effectively complete the test,” said Mr. Fitz-Roy. “We chose to distribute the Amsler grids at our craft events as we recognised these events host the demographic most at risk of macular degeneration,” he said.
