This has been a wish for more than 50 years.
A 78-year-old Toronto Maple Leafs fan from Nova Scotia has the opportunity to see his favorite team play in person tonight thanks to a charity that gives unfulfilled wishes to seniors.
Moreover, when Eric MacDonald sits down to watch Leafs vs. Boston Bruins at Scotiabank Arena on Friday night, he will be wearing a device that will allow him to see the players.
MacDonald has impaired vision. He has not been able to see his grandchildren’s faces for more than 10 years.
“I will probably be happy about that when I get there,” he told CTV News Your Morning before the match. “When I really went in there and saw the size and the number of people.”
“I would like to see Aston Matthews score a few goals.”
Katie Mahoney, co-founder of the charity We Are Young, said Eric is one of 20 to 30 adults whose wishes will come true this year. His love for his family and struggle with his vision were what set him apart from the other candidates.
“He’s such an avid Toronto Maple Leafs fan, and although he couldn’t see, he still wanted to go see the game to hear it and be in the crowd. He just told us, “she told CTV News Toronto.
Mahoney said McDonald last watched a Leafs game when he was 18, through a corporate event, but was in the nosebleeds section.
“He joked that he had never actually seen the game,” she told CTV News Toronto.
We Are Young partnered with a company called eSight, which donated a pair of special MacDonald glasses to use at night. The glasses allow visually impaired people who are legally blind to see with 20/20 vision.
Eric MacDonald demonstrates eSight glasses at CTV News Your Morning.
MacDonald traveled to Toronto with his grandchildren and, while testing his glasses, saw his grandson’s face for the first time since he was nine years old.
He said if his grandson hadn’t talked to him, he wouldn’t know it was him.
“One of my youngest (grandchildren), he just turned 11,” MacDonald said. “And I’ve never actually seen him with glasses.”
After meeting with McDonald, E-Sight decided to give him the glasses, knowing how difficult it would be to give them the gift of sight and then take it away.
“I don’t know what to say,” he told Your Morning, adding that he can’t wait to go out and see the people he’s waving at.
Mahoney said We Are Young sorts the backlog of applications due to the pandemic. In the last few years, they have failed to fulfill some of their larger desires, instead focusing on sending nearly 4,000 care packages to the elderly, who have been isolated and lonely, fulfilling “small desires,” as Mohoni put it.
The charity works mainly with donations and will soon launch a new program called “Monthly Wish Champion”, which will help fund the desire of the month.
Add Comment