Prevent Blindness America, the nation's leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight, honored Chicago Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee as the recipient of a 2008 Visionary Award at Prevent Blindness America’s Centennial January 10.

Lee has been personally affected by vision problems through close family members. By witnessing the effects of Leber's congenital amaurosis in his daughter, Lee was inspired to help others learn about the disease and the steps they can take to prevent vision loss. LCA, an inherited, blinding eye disease strikes during infancy or early childhood and has partially blinded Lee's young daughter.

“We need to help protect our children’s vision through education and access to quality vision services. Through organizations like Prevent Blindness America and Project 3000, we can work to save sight for our kids,” Lee said.

Project 3000 was launched in September 2006 when Lee and Boston Celtics CEO and co-owner Wyc Grousbeck, who also has a child with LCA, partnered with The University of Iowa. They call their effort "Project 3000" because a central part of their plan is to find every man, woman, and child affected with LCA in the United States - about 3,000 people. Nearly 500 Americans with LCA already are known, so 2,500 people in the nation remain to be identified.

Affected individuals have been offered testing at the UI John and Marcia Carver Nonprofit Genetic Testing Laboratory. Through the testing service, UI experts give people with LCA more accurate information about their disease. The eventual goal is to find a cure.

According to Edwin Stone, MD, PhD, Seamans-Hauser Chair in Molecular Ophthalmology at the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, Project 3000 likely will achieve its first objective and become the "blueprint" recipe for attacking dozens of other sight-robbing diseases.

Based at the UI Carver College of Medicine, Project 3000 will offer state-of-the-art genetic testing to identify individuals on a nonprofit basis through the John and Marcia Carver Nonprofit Genetic Testing Laboratory. For families who lack health insurance, philanthropic donations will be available to help reduce the cost of the tests.

Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness America is the nation's leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Focused on promoting a continuum of vision care, Prevent Blindness America touches the lives of millions of people each year through public and professional education, advocacy, certified vision screening training, community and patient service programs and research. Together with a network of affiliates, divisions and chapters, it's committed to eliminating preventable blindness in America.

For more information:

Prevent Blindness America

Edwin Stone, MD, PhD

Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine

John and Marcia Carver Nonprofit Genetic Testing Laboratory