It's a weekly meeting between William "Billy" Robinson and Nimra Sarwar.

Sarwar, an aspiring optometrist, is reading mail and email to Robinson, who has been legally blind since birth due to congenital glaucoma. Sarwar does it as part of the Lighthouse Guild's Reading Service Program, the signature volunteer program for the organization with the mission to inspire the visually impaired to achieve their goals.

What You Need To Know

  • The Lighthouse Guild has been inspiring the visually impaired to achieve their goals for more than a century

  • The signature volunteer program is the Reading Service Program, where volunteers read mail and email to blind and visually impaired New Yorkers 

  • Last year, 295 volunteers helped in various programs at the Lighthouse Guild 

"It gives a person with vision impairment dignity. They don't always have to rely on their family and friends, they have this one person that they don't feel that they are imposing on," said Cheryl A. Pemberton-Graves, the chief volunteer officer at the Stephen T. Pearlman Volunteer Center at the Lighthouse Guild. "It allows them to maintain their independence and continue to live their lives independently."

The service has been a big help to the very busy Robinson, who sings lead in the Total Soul band, runs a recording studio and was once singer for the hit-making group BT Express. Robinson has been utilizing Lighthouse Guild services for more than two decades.

The reading services are even more vital to him after the death of his wife of 44 years in 2018.  

"I keep all of my mail coming as far as my bills, where they will send that in braille, but everything else is print. And so I need a reader like Miss Nimra here, to do what we are doing. We get like 500 or 1,000 emails taken care of in one sitting, along with regular mail," Robinson said.

Lighthouse Guild volunteers are a big part of the organization accomplishing its mission. In 2023 interns and volunteers provided more than 14,000 hours of service. There is a human component too. Many of these pairs have been together for years. For Sarwar, it's a chance to look to the future working with the visually impaired.

"I didn't want to just see as the opticianry part of it or the doctor visit, I wanted to really get to know the community that I would help out," Sarwar said. 

Robinson hopes that other visually impaired New Yorkers will take advantage of the program too.

"This program will be good for many people, especially blind people, but sighted people because it is going to open their eyes in a different way," Robinson said.