Aaron Thomas Vnuk was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1974. He was raised amidst a mountainous landscape torn by the great North Eastern Pennsylvania Coal Mining Industry, which at the time was one of the largest coal producing areas in the United States. He moved to Connecticut in the mid 1980’s with his mother; Edna, his father; Jerry, brother; Adam and sister; Amber while the rest of his family and relatives remained in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania. Aaron graduated from Conard High School located in West Hartford, Connecticut in 1993 and went on to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science and a Master’s Degree in School Counseling from Central Connecticut State University.
He struggled with his vision all of his life but was always able to see just well-enough for him to appear as a normal child and young adult. It wasn’t until the year 2002 when he was in his late twenties that his vision worsened to the point where he could no longer function as he did in the past. Aaron and his family had to face the terrifying reality that something much more serious was causing his vision to change. In the winter of 2002, after a full day of testing at the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary, Aaron was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an incurable disease that would slowly rob him of his vision. It was only years later in the spring of 2005 that he was declared legally blind.
Today, Aaron lives with his wife, Linda and son, Matthew in Simsbury, Connecticut. He is a registered client and is under the protection of the Board of Education and Services for the Blind (BESB) located in Windsor, Connecticut. He is also a hopeful member of the Foundation for Fighting Blindness (www.blindness.org), a national organization dedicated to driving research to save and restore sight. During the day, Aaron works as a school counselor in a public middle school; a job that he earned all on his own by going to graduate school without receiving any special services or accommodations; just a lot of help from his family. His career path inspired an article written in the West Hartford News calling him, “A school guidance counselor by day and a powerful film executive producer by night.” He spends his time outside of his day job by writing screenplays and novels and commanding the talented team of independent filmmakers known as Legion Films.