Post Eye Ball Press Release

Contact: Grace McCaffery

1302 Dunmire St., Pensacola, Fla. 32504

Phone: 850 477-2663 (office)

850 291-9968 (cell)

January 25, 2005

For immediate release

2005 Eye Ball Raises $28,000 for Programs for the Blind

Nearly $28,000 was raised Sat., Jan. 22, for Independence for the Blind (IB West) at the 2005 Eye Ball. The black tie event chaired by Buzz and Debbie Ritchie was the first event held at the Hilton Garden Inn on Pensacola Beach since Hurricane Ivan.

More than 170 people attended the Eye Ball and bid on live and silent auction items. The highest bid went toward an auction item called Name Your Own Street, an opportunity to name a street in East River Plantation, a new residential community soon to be developed near the intersection of Interstate 10 and West Nine Mile Road. The auction item, donated by RGB Development, Inc. sold for more than $1000.

The event included live music by Joe Occhipinti’s Big Band and Clarence Bell. Bell, who is blind, performed for President Carter at the World Peace Conference in 2003, and also records with Stevie Wonder.

“Considering the challenges of recent disasters it is especially remarkable to see so much support. It’s such an important cause and this was a tremendous success for IB West,” said Buzz Ritchie.

IB West is a nonprofit organization that teaches independent living skills,

computer and adaptive technology, and provides vocational assessments, training and employment related services to people who are blind or visually impaired. The goal of their programs is to help the blind achieve maximum independence. IB West hopes to open a new teaching facility on Davis Hwy. near Texar in the near future.

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