Optic Nerve Atrophy Film Fund
Donation protected
Dear Contributors,
As students of the College of Southern Nevada, we created a short documentary for a class project about a medical condition that affects a lot of people; yet it’s not commonly known. This condition is called Optic Nerve Atrophy (ONA) and it causes people to progressively become blind. Unfortunately, this condition creates some very difficult challenges for children and parents in their daily lives and in our school systems; especially because of the lack of awareness.
We became very sympathetic about the difficulties and challenges affecting people with this condition during the development of this documentary. As a result, we want to help bring awareness in order to help people with this medical condition. In fact, we learned so much about this condition from this amazing family, the Rupp family, who became the stars, the source, and the motivation for us to do our best in capturing the essence of this condition and how people can cope with it in a positive way.
Terri Rupp, the wife, was diagnosed with ONA at a very young age and now she is nearsighted at 20/400 and farsighted at 20/1600, 20/200 is categorized as legally blind, and currently getting worse; yet she married a wonderful man, and they have two beautiful children. What makes life more complicated for the Rupp family is that their daughter has also been diagnosed with ONA. We want to unite with Terri Rupp and her family to share her message with the world. She wants to bring awareness of ONA in order to gain support and help the next generation of children that will be born with this unfortunate condition. But she wants to bring the message in a positive way. She wants children who are blind to know that they are able to grow up in a healthy environment and not get bullied. She wants to show that being blind does not have to be an obstacle, but to look at blindness as part of them; like people who have curly hair or beautiful smiles. In fact, she wants to show that this is just a secondary characteristic and not something that defines them.
In an effort to raise the awareness sought by the Rupp family and help others with ONA, we determined that the best way was for us to submit our documentary into as many film festivals as possible. The documentary was very well done; it actually won “Best Picture” and “Best Cinematography” at CSN’s 4th Annual Showcase on October 9th, 2015. Unfortunately, to submit the documentary to film festivals requires money that we, as struggling students, do not have. Therefore, we are asking for your help to raise enough money to submit this documentary into as many film festivals as possible, both in the United States and Internationally.
If you want to make a difference, submit your donation to our gofundme campaign.
Lastly, we do want to show support to Terri, who writes and shares openly about her life through her blog. So if you are interested in seeing what she does, please don’t stop here, and go visit her blog at blindmomintheburbs.com. You’ll see more wonderful details about her life in using nonvisual technics in her daily life, and how active she is in advocating issues on blindness.
Thank you,
Jeremy Hernandez & Tyler Stefanelli
As students of the College of Southern Nevada, we created a short documentary for a class project about a medical condition that affects a lot of people; yet it’s not commonly known. This condition is called Optic Nerve Atrophy (ONA) and it causes people to progressively become blind. Unfortunately, this condition creates some very difficult challenges for children and parents in their daily lives and in our school systems; especially because of the lack of awareness.
We became very sympathetic about the difficulties and challenges affecting people with this condition during the development of this documentary. As a result, we want to help bring awareness in order to help people with this medical condition. In fact, we learned so much about this condition from this amazing family, the Rupp family, who became the stars, the source, and the motivation for us to do our best in capturing the essence of this condition and how people can cope with it in a positive way.
Terri Rupp, the wife, was diagnosed with ONA at a very young age and now she is nearsighted at 20/400 and farsighted at 20/1600, 20/200 is categorized as legally blind, and currently getting worse; yet she married a wonderful man, and they have two beautiful children. What makes life more complicated for the Rupp family is that their daughter has also been diagnosed with ONA. We want to unite with Terri Rupp and her family to share her message with the world. She wants to bring awareness of ONA in order to gain support and help the next generation of children that will be born with this unfortunate condition. But she wants to bring the message in a positive way. She wants children who are blind to know that they are able to grow up in a healthy environment and not get bullied. She wants to show that being blind does not have to be an obstacle, but to look at blindness as part of them; like people who have curly hair or beautiful smiles. In fact, she wants to show that this is just a secondary characteristic and not something that defines them.
In an effort to raise the awareness sought by the Rupp family and help others with ONA, we determined that the best way was for us to submit our documentary into as many film festivals as possible. The documentary was very well done; it actually won “Best Picture” and “Best Cinematography” at CSN’s 4th Annual Showcase on October 9th, 2015. Unfortunately, to submit the documentary to film festivals requires money that we, as struggling students, do not have. Therefore, we are asking for your help to raise enough money to submit this documentary into as many film festivals as possible, both in the United States and Internationally.
If you want to make a difference, submit your donation to our gofundme campaign.
Lastly, we do want to show support to Terri, who writes and shares openly about her life through her blog. So if you are interested in seeing what she does, please don’t stop here, and go visit her blog at blindmomintheburbs.com. You’ll see more wonderful details about her life in using nonvisual technics in her daily life, and how active she is in advocating issues on blindness.
Thank you,
Jeremy Hernandez & Tyler Stefanelli
Organizer
Jeremy Hernandez
Organizer
North Las Vegas, NV
