It’s almost time for some Home Grown Happiness at the 2024 NC State Fair! This thrilling, entertaining, and educational event is the place to be from October 17-27. For many years now, the State Fair has been a huge, impactful event for Prevent Blindness NC as we have offered free vision services to thousands of fair-goers. And we hope this year will be the best year yet!
From meeting fair-goers by providing free acuity and retinal screenings at our booth in the Education Building to parking thousands of cars in the nearby Westchase parking lots as our largest annual fundraiser, our PBNC team takes pride in serving as an eye health resource for our fellow North Carolinians. While getting an eye screening may not be what most people think about when attending the fair, our participants share their appreciation of our services as many have had no other vision services this year, or maybe ever! Once discovering our booth, many participants share that they now make it a point to visit us each year to take advantage of our resources. Not only does our screening booth serve as an opportunity to find vision issues that may be going undetected and untreated, it is also a place for awareness and education about the importance of good visual health and taking the best care possible of our eyes! We appreciate our eye health experts who take time to visit our booth and serve as a resource for participants with questions and concerns. Again this year, we will have eye doctors, eye health specialists, and other experts join us, so be sure to check our announcements on our website and social media platforms for dates and times!
We will also have another very special visitor at our booth this year! Carl Borriello has graciously agreed to serve as our 2024-2025 Prevent Blindness Ambassador. Carl, who lost his vision as an adult due to the negative effects of diabetes, is now a passionate crusader for saving the sight of others. His determination to bring awareness and knowledge on visual health issues to others makes him the perfect advocate for our mission to prevent blindness for NC citizens of all ages. Carl will join us at our screening booth to encourage and inform participants. Plan to stop by and meet him. His enthusiasm is contagious!
We also encourage you to reach out if you are interested in being a part of this exciting event. As you can imagine, we need lots of support and many volunteers to help make the fair a success. We have screening booth and parking lot sponsorship opportunities. Help support our impact while promoting your business at the same time! Or join the fun in the parking lot on evenings or weekends. Proceeds help support our state-wide programs throughout the year. You can USE THIS LINK for more information and to sign up for a shift. We look forward to you joining our team!
So while we strongly encourage you to enjoy the corn, candy apples and everything home grown while at the fair, we also think visiting our booth to get a free screening and talk to our passionate team about eye health will be the most valuable stop to put on your fair to-do list! Can’t wait to see you there!
