Family of adopted girl gives back to Cleveland Sight Center

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio - When Jeff and Tammy Jarrett needed help adopting a second visually impaired child from China last year, they found the support they needed from the Cleveland Sight Center. Monday night, they said thanks.

The Jarretts opened the doors of their new Strongsville restaurant, Palate, for a fundraiser benefiting the Sight Center as part of Dinner In The Dark, an organization started last year by a group of local chefs as a way to give back to the community.

The Jarretts brought Jewelia, who will turn two on Valentines Day, home from China in November.

Jewelia was born without eyes, abandoned by her family and left in a Chinese orphanage where her prospects of adoption were slim.

The Sight Center hosted a fundraiser for the Jarretts last March to help them raise the money needed to bring Jewelia to America. The Jarretts also have another visually impaired daughter, Jasmine, 4, who they adopted from China in 2007. They also have three boys of their own.

"We're thrilled that they turned to us and we were able to help them," said Steven Friedman, Executive Director of the Cleveland Sight Center. "In return this is what they're doing for us to say thank you, couldn't be better."

Tammy Jarrett said, "To be able to do something like this, to be able to help them, even though it may just be a little bit of help just to let them know how much we appreciate what they did for us, it's nice."

Jeff Jarrett said Jewelia is showing signs of progress.

"For her age she is a little underdeveloped," he said when she first arrived in November. "She wasn't speaking, she doesn't crawl or anything."

"You can see as the days go by that her muscles are developing a little bit better and that she's, with our help, starting to stand a little bit," he said.

It's something Tammy credits the Sight Center with helping to make happen.

"I really don't think I could do this without them," she said.

Dinner In the Dark holds a dining event each month at a local restaurant, where guests pay a fixed price and are treated to a seven course meal of the chef's favorite dishes. The proceeds go to the local charity of the host chef's choosing.