Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired will present Music Under the Stars, an annual fundraising spectacular benefiting its Florida Heiken Children’s Vision Program, on Wednesday, May 24, 6 p.m., at Brickell City Centre, 701 S. Miami Ave.
Music Under the Stars will feature special performances by students and faculty of the Miami Lighthouse Music Program, gourmet food and fine wine catered by Brickell City Centre restaurants, a fabulous silent auction and a raffle for Brickell City Centre shops gift certificates.
A highlight of the event will be the display of renderings of a new mobile optometric unit, donated by the Miami Marlins and Major League Baseball, which will be presented to the Florida Heiken Vision Program in July as part of their All-Star Legacy Initiative. The new mobile unit will empower the Heiken program to expand its statewide mission, which promotes vision health among school children.
Music Under the Stars also will honor Dr. Sidney J. Stern, past president of the Miami-Dade Optometric Physicians Association, who was instrumental in creating the Heiken program.
The Florida Heiken Children’s Vision Program, a subsidiary of Miami Lighthouse, provides free comprehensive eye examinations and glasses when prescribed to low-income school children who fail their state-mandated vision screenings and have no insurance or other financial resources for eye care. Since its inception in 1992, it has given exams to more than 111,000 children throughout Florida, 80 percent of whom required glasses.
Sponsors of Music Under the Stars include ABB Optical Group, Publix Super Markets Charities, Marlins Foundation, Essilor Laboratories of America, Signet Armorlite, BB&T Bank, Genesis Consulting, GrayRobinson, H. Angela Whitman Foundation, Brickell City Centre and Susan Conroy Design.
