Photograph by Robert Scheer
Connie Curry of Saratoga cites the movie "Powder" as a worst-case scenario of albinism.
By Loretta McCarty
For many people, the word "albino" conjures up images of mysterious people with unusually white skin, who can see in the dark, and who possess evil and deviant powers.
Not so, according to the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation. These myths and others will be addressed at the group's biannual international conference at the Santa Clara Marriott Hotel, July 11-14.
NOAH is an international organization founded by persons with albinism to educate people about albinism and the resources available to those with the condition. The conference also provides information and support to individuals and families with albinism.
The meeting is expected to draw more than 300 people from around the world, including South Africa, England and Scotland, said Connie Curry of Saratoga, past president of NOAH.
Albinism knows no boundaries and affects all races, Curry said. It occurs about once in every 10,000 births and is an inherited condition that reduces the amount of melanin pigment in the skin, hair and eyes.
It is also a condition that is plagued with misconceptions and myths oftentimes perpetuated by the media, said Curry: "They like to draw negative, oddball attention to the condition." She cites the film Powder as the latest Hollywood version of a "worst-case scenario" of what having albinism is all about.
Curry describes her own institutionalized childhood as one where she was lumped into a category of blind, deaf and the disturbed.
"We were worse than oddities," she said.
Despite her own bleak beginnings, Curry grew up to become an example of a person with albinisim who has lived a normal and productive life.
For the past 14 years she has owned and operated her own company, Balloonatics, an event-decorating business in Campbell.
Curry is also a past recipient of the Tympany Center Celebration of Courage award, given out yearly at the Flint Center to those who show a "spirit of courage."
The conference begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 11 and ends Sunday, July 14, at 10:30 a.m. The cost is $85.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, July 10, 1996.
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