Mittmans give back with Foundation Fighting Blindness
It was in 1972, during his sophomore year in college at the University of Miami, when Evan Mittman realized he “wasn”™t seeing as well.”
“I thought I needed glasses,” he said.
Instead the 19-year-old”™s doctor immediately sent him to the hospital.
“Basically, they told me that I had one year to see, that I needed to get a seeing-eye dog, and I needed to learn Braille,” said Mittman, a resident of Armonk.
Eventually, he got a diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa. The rare genetic disease would leave him legally blind, forcing him to give up his driver”™s license.
In shock, Mittman dropped out of college and began unloading trucks at a Walmart.
But after a few months, he returned to college, studying by “reel to reel” tapes. After graduation, he returned to his native New York and began a career of nearly 40 years in the fashion industry.
“I had the opportunity to go into business, and I opened up a small factory,” he said. Mittman co-founded Cipriani Accessories and began manufacturing women”™s accessories in Long Island City.
“We had licensing agreements with people like Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, John Varvatos, Guess and many others, and I had over 20 designers reporting to me.” It had, he admitted, its challenges.
“The funny part about it was I am legally blind, and I ran the whole design part of the company,” he said with a laugh. “I have partial vision so all the designers had to blow up the spec sheets.”
“Forty years later, I grew the company to one of the largest accessories companies in the United States, and six months ago sold the company to a $22-billion multinational, Hong Kong-based company.”
Today, Mittman is a recently retired executive who is devoting even more time to a cause especially important to him.
As his parents did following his diagnosis, Mittman has been relying on and supporting the work of Foundation Fighting Blindness since its earliest years.
“Over the years, I called on them for multiple reasons because they”™re a great resource,” having them suggest everything from low-vision products to specialists, he said.
Mittman is one of 10 million people in the U.S. affected by vision-robbing retinal diseases, according to FFB.
Since its founding in 1971, the national nonprofit has raised nearly $550 million toward its mission “to drive the research that will provide preventions, treatments and cures for people affected by retinitis pigmentosa (RP), macular degeneration, Usher syndrome and the entire spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases.”
Currently the foundation is funding 129 grants and 71 institutions. It supports research in areas such as genetics, gene therapy, retinal cell transplantation and pharmaceutical and nutritional therapies.
Foundation officials said 40 people have had their sight partially restored in FFB-supported clinical trials. The foundation also provides information and outreach programs for patients, families and professionals.
Despite all that, Mittman said, “The awareness is not what it should be.”
That is where he and his wife, Debi, help make a difference. He now has more time to do what he considers instrumental work.
“Over the last let”™s call it 10 years, Debi and I wanted to really give back and what we decided to do, in that we lived in Westchester, we wanted to start a chapter (of FFB) in Westchester.”
Both Mittmans became trustees of the foundation. Evan was elected to the board of directors, with Debi serving as president of the Westchester-Fairfield chapter they founded.
“All the time, I get calls,” she said. She offers referrals, advice and support given with an understanding of how recently diagnosed people and their families feel. “They”™re alone,” she said. “They”™re scared.”
The Mittmans since the chapter”™s founding have raised more than $1 million for the foundation, Evan said. The donations support work in stem cell research, genetic therapy and other cutting-edge work, he said. The findings potentially could be applied to other diseases and treatments.
Yet funding is an ever-present concern. “Each clinical trial costs millions and millions of dollars,” he said. The foundation has launched a campaign to raise $300 million in the next seven years, aided by an initial two-year matching challenge by the the foundation”™s chairman and co-founder, Gordon Gund, and his family.
Mittman said he sees more positive trial results leading to cures for retinal diseases in the near future. “We have come to a point where we are now on the 5-yard line, ready to score a touchdown,” he said.
Mittman has hope that research discoveries may help him too. “Every seven years I”™m losing half of my vision,” he said.
The Westchester-Fairfield chapter has annual events designed to help raise both awareness and funds.
“Dining in the Dark is a signature event for the foundation,” Debi Mittman said, with participants given the chance to experience what it”™s like to live without sight.
The chapter also honors “visionaries” in the fashion world at an annual gala. In May, Evan Mittman was honored along with shoe-and-fashion company veterans Sam and Libby Edelman.
The chapter”™s seventh annual Westchester-Fairfield VisionWalk will be Sept. 28 at Purchase College.
Evan Mittman himself serves as an example of how one cannot only live but thrive with impaired vision.
Mittman had just returned from golf when he met with the Business Journal. He also has played tennis and rides a bike.
“There is nothing he wouldn”™t try,” said his wife.
For more on the VisionWalk and the Foundation Fighting Blindness, visit Blindness.org.