Thirty years ago, Charlie Collins was a typical 10-year old fun loving boy, riding dirt bikes through the woods in his home town of Cheshire, CT., playing baseball and attending the local elementary school. At the age of 13, though, his ordinary childhood ended, and his extraordinary journey began. Charlie’s life was shattered with devastating news; he suffered from a rare, untreatable eye disease that causes progressive blindness
-Juvenile Macular Degeneration.

He experienced several stages of distress; anger, shame, disbelief. His self-esteem hit rock bottom. “I felt completely alone out there and unequipped to live an independent, productive life. I focused only on the problem, never a solution,” says Collins. He considered suicide, but just couldn’t bear to do it.

Today, he’s a successful entrepreneur who in 1997 founded Vision Dynamics, retail store in Cheshire, CT that sells adaptive equipment for those with blindness and low vision. True to his passion to help others succeed, most of Vision Dynamics’ 10 employees are blind.

And, never forgetting his passion to help others, Charlie travels the Eastern Seaboard giving motivational talks to inspire and empower his audiences.

His message is simple:

With Hope And Determination,
Anyone Can See In The Dark.