FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information:
Prevent Blindness, Ohio Affiliate
Dori Jennings
(614) 270-0746
[email protected]
Prevent Blindness Honors LaRosa’s Pizzeria and the LaRosa Family with the 2021 People of Vision Award
March 10, 2021 (Cincinnati, OH) The Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness was proud to honor LaRosa’s Pizzeria and the LaRosa Family with the People of Vision Award virtually, on March 9, 2021.
Since 1985, The Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness has recognized and awarded select organizations and their leaders for visionary leadership and community service. The People of Vision Award event has become one of Southwest Ohio’s premier charitable events in support of the Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness (PBO) and its mission to prevent blindness and preserve sight.
PBO board member and retired Chairman of the Board of Cincinnati Insurance Companies, Ken Stecher presented the award to LaRosa’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael LaRosa and President & Chief Culinary Officer, Mark LaRosa, and asked that we join in honoring LaRosa’s Pizzeria and the LaRosa Family for their amazing philanthropic work in Southwest Ohio.
“LaRosa’s is as Cincinnati a company as it gets,” said Stecher. “Buddy LaRosa’s first restaurant started in the neighborhood of Westwood in 1954 and he’s seen his company grow to serve neighborhoods in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.”
“LaRosa’s has been a beacon of community service in greater Cincinnati. Inspired by his love of boxing, Buddy founded Cincinnati Golden Gloves, an organization that benefits local inner-city youth by teaching them life skills,” Stecher added.
In 2020, to honor their founder on his 90th birthday, The LaRosa Family Foundation was launched to further support youth and adolescent development through education, athletics and life skills training.
LaRosa’s works with schools and many neighborhood organizations to sell Buddy Cards to neighbors, family and friends in order to raise funds to support academic and athletic activities.
Mike LaRosa proudly accepted the honor with the following words:
“It is heartwarming to participate in an event like this and watch the videos with the young school children that are benefitting, with their families, from the valuable support that Prevent Blindness brings into their lives and into the quality of their life. It just makes you feel really good to be associated with that kind of activity. Together we do achieve more.”
Half of all blindness is preventable and the number of individuals who are blind or visually impaired is expected to double by the year 2030 if nothing is done to address the problem. Furthermore, it is estimated that the economic impact of visual disorders and disabilities costs approximately $5.4 billion annually in Ohio.
About Prevent Blindness, Ohio Affiliate
Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation’s leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. The Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness is Ohio’s leading volunteer nonprofit public health organization dedicated to prevent blindness and preserve sight. We serve all 88 Ohio counties, providing direct services to 1,000,000 Ohioans annually and educating millions of consumers about what they can do to protect and preserve their precious gift of sight. For more information or to make a contribution, call 800-301-2020. Or, visit us on the web at www.pbohio.org or facebook.com/pbohio and Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/PB_Ohio.
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