Westmoreland County Blind Association Announces Its Annual Night at the Races Fundraising Event

Oct. 13, 2011 - PRLog -- Westmoreland County Blind Association (WCBA) is holding its annual Night at the Races fundraising event at St. Bruno’s Church Hall in Greensburg on Saturday, October 29. All proceeds from this event will go towards supporting the different initiatives that the WCBA implements throughout the community.

The event will begin at 7:00pm with doors opening at 6:30pm. The evening’s main event is a horse racing broadcast where attendees will have the opportunity to buy and name horses for each race. In addition, the fundraising event will also be showcasing a magic show, making it a great event for all ages. Snacks and beverages will be available throughout the evening.

Westmoreland County Blind Association is a corporation that employs approximately 50 blind or visually impaired individuals in a variety of positions in its document shredding and records storage facility, as well as, in their embroidery shop (http://www.wcbashreddingandembroidery.com/document-destruction-shredding-services-pittsburgh-greensburg.htm).. The WCBA’s mission is to improve the quality of life of the blind and visually impaired, while assisting in the prevention of blindness by travelling to schools and performing vision screenings for pre-school and kindergarten classes.

According to WCBA’s Program Specialist and Supports Coordinator, Nick Purnell, “The Night at the Races is one of the most fun events we hold. Every year we have a great turnout and spirits are always high during the event. It’s probably the only event where you can buy a horse and not have to worry about bringing it home.”

Tickets to this event can be purchased by contacting Barb Italiano at 724-837-1250 ext. 12

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The Westmoreland County Blind Association provides job opportunities for the lower functioning blind worker as well as individuals whom are mentally challenged in our Work Activity Center.

Our WAC has grown dramatically over the past few years. We now have over 70 consumers in our program in comparison to just 12 five years ago. The leading reason for this growth is due to the expansion in our Document Destruction services.

The development of this program has created large volumes of work for the physically and mentally challenged consumers of our agency. The Work Activity Center provides therapeutic and developmental work tasks for the multi-disabled consumer. The tasks will be of a nature so that the consumer may develop skills and dexterity in increasingly difficult motions and tasks. The overall goal of the WAC is to promote the development of work skills necessary for placement in a higher level of employment such as a sheltered workshop or in competitive employment.