“We tell people to wear nice suits and dresses to the event, but not too nice,” joked Tim Marabella. Marabella is an event manager for the Foundation Fighting Blindness, and he’s referring to the potential for sloppy eating at the group’s signature fundraiser, "Dining in the Dark."
Returning to St. Louis on May 11, Dining in the Dark gives donors the chance to simulate the challenges faced by those with vision impairments by enjoying a meal in a completely dark banquet hall during a half-hour period.
“We do a ten-second darkness test right before the lights go down for real,” explained Marabella. “Then we give people the opportunity, if they’re uncomfortable, to leave the ballroom, but that never happens. When the lights go down, everyone is in complete darkness -- they have to find their silverware and figure out what they’re eating. We do tell them their meat’s at six o’clock, and vegetables at two o’clock, and so on.”
Imagine, dear foodie reader, how sharp your senses of taste, smell, and touch must become when you have little sense of sight. It’s quite a little test, and in addition to the empathy for the blind it arouses, it’s a lot of fun for the diners, said Marabella.
“The room is filled with gasping, sighing, and laughing,” he said. “It’s like people have become second or third graders again.”
He added that diners can raise their hands if they need something, for instance, if they drop their forks or need to use the restroom, and an attendant wearing night-vision goggles will come around to help.
“The lights go back up right before dessert and coffee,” Marabella also said, and then we have someone affected speak to everyone, someone who has to go through this for real every day.”
This year’s St. Louis Dining in the Dark honorees include St. Louis Rams General Manager William "Billy" Devaney, Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard shareholder Stephen Strum, and Mrs. Angela Strum. (They will each receive an award which is actually called -- no foolin’ – “the Visionary Award.”) Others expected to attend include Mayor Francis Slay, St. Louis Cardinals General Manager John Mozeliak, and Supreme Court of Missouri Judge Richard B. Teitelman.
The Foundation funds research to put an end to such retinal blinding diseases as macular degeneration, Usher’s syndrome, and retinitis pigmentosa.
