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"To empower people with vision loss to realize their full potential, and to shape the community's vision of that potential.”
Our programs and services are designed to empower our clients to move beyond limitations.
CLEVELAND SIGHT CENTER TRUSTEES REMEMBERED
We mourn the loss of David W. Swetland, who joined Cleveland Sight Center’s Board of Trustees in 1966. In 2003 in honor of nearly four decades of service to the agency and its clients, he was appointed to Life Trustee. Mr. Swetland served on numerous agency committees including the Cleveland Radio Reading Services Advisory Committee, the Prevention of Blindness and Camp Advisory Committees. An avid environmentalist, Mr. Swetland also served as environmental counsel to the agency’s Building and Grounds Committee. He and his family were instrumental in funding several environmental improvements at Highbrook Lodge, the agency’s residential camp in Chardon, accessible to individuals who are blind or visually impaired.
In the late 1950's Mr. Swetland and his wife Mary Ann Sears Swetland felt that not enough was understood about the unintended health consequences of chemical, agricultural, and industrial products in our environment. While medical education at the time principally focused on the diagnosis and treatment of injury and disease, there was little medical science that documented the relationship of diet and lifestyle on human health. Therefore, after her death, Mr. Swetland focused the chair endowed by his late wife's estate on preventative medicine and the threats of man-made environmental hazards and how these hazards impacted human health.
Mr. Swetland will long be remembered as a dedicated friend and supporter of Cleveland Sight Center and for his many contributions to help improve the lives of others.
Heath Oliver was a Trustee of Cleveland Sight Center since 1996. His family had been long time supporters of the agency beginning with his father, who received services from Cleveland Sight Center. Heath was a strong supporter and participant on the Business Enterprises Committee, which guides this agency program designed to prepare and employ individuals who are blind or visually impaired for food service management.
He served as the Corporate Chair for the agency’s annual dinner-dance fundraiser, formerly known as Spellbound, in 2002. Heath served as its Chair in 2004, and with his wife Sylvia in 2003, he Co-Chaired the event with his friend and fellow Trustee Pat O’Brien along with Pat’s wife, Lisa.
Pat O’Brien became a Trustee of the agency in 1981 and served as Chair of the Board of Trustees from 1995-1997. He was a long-time member of the Camp Committee and served as its Chair. Pat also served on both the Budget and Finance and Investment Committees.
Pat’s grandfather, Caesar Grasselli, was a leading manufacturing chemist and philanthropist. Cleveland Sight Center began its service to our community in 1906 as the Cleveland Society for the Blind, located at the Goodrich Settlement House in Cleveland. In 1918 Caesar Grasselli donated his family’s home on East 55th Street to the agency, where it remained until moving to its current location on East 101st Street in 1966. Pat and his family embraced his grandfather’s philanthropic legacy and commitment to Cleveland Sight Center.
We respectfully honor the memories of Heath Oliver and Pat O’Brien, and their many contributions to Cleveland Sight Center, our clients and our community.
