MADISON, Wis.—In honor of World Sight Day on Oct.11, Combat Blindness International (CBI) is hosting its eighth annual gala on Oct. 3 this year. The celebration will be held at the Town Center of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on the campus of the University of Wisconsin. It will include an array of international foods and remarks from Scott Duncan, a member of the first two-person, legally blind crew to sail across the Pacific Ocean.

Founded in 1984, CBI has been at the forefront of delivering quality eyecare to prevent blindness caused by many factors such as malnutrition, illness or physical damage. In recent years, CBI has also helped fund free community eyecare clinics here. “The primary reasons for blindness globally are cataracts, and 80 percent of that blindness is avoidable or treatable,” said Suresh Chandra, MD, founder of CBI. “Left untreated, the cataract-blind population around the world will more than double by the year 2020. Remarkably, for just $20 we can restore the sight of a man, woman or child who is blind due to cataracts.”

As a result of this low cost of treatment, CBI has been able to sponsor thousands of eye screening camps where medical personnel have screened hundreds of thousands of patients, and they have been able to fund more than 167,000 cataract surgeries. The organization is currently soliciting gala sponsors at the gold, silver or bronze levels starting at $1,000.