Informative Speech Outline Hannah Borchardt

 Introduction

• a. Attention getter statement: Close your eyes. Imagine you were never able to see again. You would never be able to look out the window and see what the weather is like in the morning. You’d never see your friends or family again and you wouldn’t be able to take notes while sitting in class. This is a reality for 39 million people every day.
• b. Credibility Statement: Being blind effects not only a single person, but their entire family as well. My grandfather and two of my uncles are completely blind. My father is in the process of going blind. Ever since I was young, I have volunteer for the Foundation Fighting Blindness in hopes of finding a cure to help my family. In the past few weeks, I have also done lots of research on the Foundation Fighting Blindness
• c. Reason for audience to listen – connection to audience: Many of you may not know that there is a foundation that supports blindness throughout communities. Someday you are going to come across a person with a vision impairment and you should see if they know about the Foundation Fighting Blindness.
• d. Thesis statement: Today I will be informing you about the non-profit organization, the Foundation Fighting Blindness.
• e. Preview of main points: I will be explaining how the Foundation Fighting Blindness began, their mission, and their annual Vision Walks.

Transition: Many people may have heard of the Foundation Fighting Blindness before, but not many people actually know how it began.

Body

• Main Point 1: The Foundation Fighting Blindness was established in 1971 by Gordon and Llura Gund along with Bernard and Beverly Berman. These leaders were determined to find a cure for retinal degenerations.

1. Subpoint 1: Back in 1971, very little was known about these diseases that were taking away people’s vision. Gordon Gund, a founder of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, had gone blind from a retinal disease and was determined to find a cure for others so they wouldn’t be face with losing their vision like him.
2. Subpoint 2: Today the foundation is 47 years old and has raised over $725 million dollars. There are currently 43 volunteer chapters across the United States who raise awareness for this non-profit organization.
3. Source: According to the 2019 Foundation Fighting Blindness article by Ben Shaberman, the Foundation Fighting Blindness is the world’s leading private funder of retinal disease research. That funding has helped identify more than 250 genes linked to retinal disease and launch 20 clinical trials for potential treatments.
4. Subpoint 2 (Cont.): As you can see the Foundation Fighting Blindness has gone a long way to get to where they are today.

Transition: Once the foundation had begun, there were a few key things they wanted to focus on.

• Main Point 2: The mission of the Foundation Fighting Blindness is to push the research that will provide preventions, treatments, and cures for people affected by retinal diseases.

1. Subpoint 1: There are several different kinds of retinal diseases. These diseases usually lead to severe vision loss or blindness.
2. Source: According to a 2018 scholarly article from Optometry Times by Dominick Opitz, there are approximately 200,000 people in the United States affected by retinal diseases. The rare nature of these diseases presents a challenge to eye doctors. Due to the small number of studies, we have little information about the disease course and its outcomes.
3. Subpoint 1 (Cont.): This makes it very difficult for researchers to find treatment options for retinal diseases.
4. Subpoint 2: The disease that runs in my family is retinal pigmentosa or RP. This is a rare, genetic disease that causes severe vision loss and eventually leads to blindness over time. The retina which is a thin piece of tissue lining the back of the eye begins to lose cells and become damaged. A person with this disease has a very hard time seeing at night and a loss of their peripheral vision. This is often referred to as tunnel vision. RP is a disease that will slowly take course and get worse over time. My father, who is currently 50 years old, is projected to lose all of his vision within the next ten years. This is a very scary thing. There is currently no cure or treatment options for this disease.

Transition: In hopes that one day there will be a cure, my family attends the annual vision walks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, put on by the Foundation Fighting Blindness.

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• Main point 3: Every year since the Spring of 2006, the Foundation Fighting Blindness holds 50 Vision Walks which take place all over the United States. This is their main fundraising event each year.

1. Subpoint 1: At each walk donors form teams and compete to raise the highest amount of money.
2. Source: According to
3. Subpoint 2: At the Vision Walks there is something to do for everyone. Before the walk begins, there are inflatables to jump on and face painting. After the walk, there is a live band that performs. Lastly, they feed you both breakfast and lunch at the Vision Walks. Who doesn’t like free food?

Conclusion:

• a. Thesis statement: Today I explained the Foundation Fighting Blindness.
• b. Review/Summary of main points: I talked about how the Foundation Fighting Blindness began, their mission and their annual Vision Walks.
• c. Memorable closing:

Annotated Bibliography

• Opitz, D. (2018). Brave New World: Gene Therapy for Inherited Retinal Disease.
• Optometry Times, 1-16. Retrieved from https://libproxy.uww.edu:9443/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=a9h&AN=130879603&site=ehost-live&scope=site
• This article is written by Dominick Opitz and talks about Inherited Retinal Diseases. EXPAND..
• Shaberman, B. (2019). About Us. Foundation Fighting Blindness. Retrieved from https://www.blindness.org/about-us

This specific website is dedicated to informing people about the Foundation Fighting Blindness. It begins by explaining how the foundation became to be and its primary goal. It goes on to talk about the foundation today and their accomplishments over the past 41 years. For example, they have raised more than $725 million since it started. Continuing on the page, there is a section dedicated to information about retinal degenerative diseases. The website describes what they are and what the Foundation Fighting Blindness has done in regard to that degeneration. Lastly, there are several research scientists listed and what each of them think of the foundation. I hope to use the facts about how this company began and what they have accomplished since the beginning. This website will be useful in presenting the shocking facts of the Foundation Fighting Blindness.