Olson to take part in blindness cure campaign


Redshirt freshman long snapper Jake Olson will be featured in a global campaign for Foundation Fighting Blindness. Olson suffers from retinoblastoma, a rare cancer of the retina that caused him to lose his left eye when he was 10 months old and his right one at the age of 12.

The campaign, #HowEyeSeeIt, is the first digital campaign for the foundation with the goal of raising funds to cure blindness caused by retinal diseases.

Olson is one of many featured in the campaign who suffers from a retinal disease. The campaign will promote fundraising through videos in which individuals do something they love blindfolded and then nominating three more people to do the same thing.

As the world’s largest private funder of research for cures of blindness, the foundation has raised $700 million to support research and create a new medial subfield. Foundation Fighting Blindness has also helped 100 children see for the first time through clinical trials and is helping create the bionic retina to help restore vision.

As his part of the campaign, Olson blindfolds other members of the football team and teaches them to snap and kick.

Other members of the campaign include chefs Tim Love and 2012 MasterChef winner Christine Ha, Orange is the New Black actress Diane Guerrero and Harry Shum Jr., actor and dancer from Glee.
The campaign will continue as videos are shared on the internet. The campaign also asks that in addition to sharing the video, each participants also donates to the foundation.