Valley Center for the Blind (VCB) is bringing its Dining in the Dark event back to Fresno after a five-year break. The event will take place at Fort Washington Country Club on Thursday, Sept. 11.
Dining in the Dark offers participants a sensory dining experience where they wear blindfolds during two of four courses. This aims to raise awareness about the challenges faced by people who are blind or have low vision.
Shellena Heber, executive director of VCB, explained that each Dining in the Dark event is unique depending on its location. “There’s something so powerful about putting on that blindfold, because usually for the first 15 minutes or so, the room is filled with laughter, as you’re trying to figure out, ‘Did I or did I not get any salad on this fork?’ But after a while, it gets a little quiet, and there’s something wonderful about that idea of being able to put yourself in someone else’s position,” Heber said.
Proceeds from this event will go toward programs supporting employment training and independence for those experiencing vision loss.
This year marks VCB’s first time hosting Dining in the Dark in Fresno since their last local event five years ago. Earlier this year, they held a similar gathering in Bakersfield. “Dining in the Dark helps us to support our core services, especially in the areas where, unfortunately, there just isn’t a lot of support and funding to help people who are blind or low vision,” Heber said.
The evening will also feature wine tasting, dinner, a silent auction and remarks from a former client who now works at VCB.
Founded more than fifty years ago as a volunteer-run social program for seniors, VCB has expanded over time to offer rehabilitation training, peer mentoring and employment services throughout California’s Central Valley. “In the last 10 years, we’ve really developed into a much more robust program that is really designed to help fill the gaps of unmet needs for people who are blind or low vision in the Central Valley,” Heber said.
According to data from the National Federation of the Blind (https://nfb.org/resources/blindness-statistics), about 2.4% of adults nationwide live with blindness or low vision. In VCB’s service area alone—covering parts of California’s Central Valley—over 60,000 individuals are affected by these conditions. The organization anticipates demand for its services could rise by up to 25% over the next decade as more people experience vision loss.
Employment remains one of the most significant barriers for people with vision loss; nationally around 70% of adults who are blind are unemployed (https://www.afb.org/research-and-initiatives/statistics-blindness-and-low-vision). To address this issue locally and beyond Fresno County lines , VCB provides job skills training including resume writing assistance , interview practice , and application support . “We help people do everything from preparing their resumes and doing mock interviews , but also go in and actually submit applications . Not all application portals are built in a way that a person using a screen reader could use , so sometimes we have to provide a little bit of extra help just to be able to get past that first step of sending in your application,” Heber said .
VCB operates workforce development initiatives which contract with businesses across America offering call center work , document scanning , digital accessibility compliance services among others . Corporate sponsorships play an important role making events like Dining In The Dark possible as well as other projects led by VCB . These partnerships also connect clients directly with potential employers .
“We can help businesses make positions right within their company accessible for a person who is blind to be able to perform that job,” she said . “So many of our clients have been eagerly looking for a job for decades , and are very eager to do a really great job for an employer and to stay a long time.”
