Philip Fisher doesn't let a genetic degenerative eye condition stop him from his hours of drawing or playing dress-up as his favorite characters.

The 9-year-old Hermitage boy suffers from Stargardt disease, a juvenile macular degenerative disease. About three years ago, he lost all of his central vision and has had to rely on his peripheral vision to see, said his parents, Kim and Ron Fisher.

It will be even easier for Philip to enjoy drawing, reading and his school work if a fund-raiser, sponsored by the family's church and a life insurance company, this weekend is successful.

Modern Woodmen of America Camp 11012 and South Pymatuning (Township) Community Church are holding a spaghetti dinner from 12:30 to 4 p.m. Sunday in the Sharpsville Veterans of Foreign Wars post home. Modern Woodmen will match up to $2,500 the church raises for the Fishers, who will use it to cover medical expenses and educational equipment.

One of the things the Fishers will use the money for is to pay off a Video Eye, a machine that magnifies Philip's school books and drawings so he can see them better. The machine, which is a closed-circuit camera and television, can magnify print 25 to 100 times.

Since the Fishers got the $3,000 machine, Philip, who is home-schooled, has made progress.

"He was behind in his school work until he got the Video Eye," Mrs. Fisher said. "He didn't even know how to read this time last year."

The Fishers started to notice a problem with Philip's vision when he was 6 or 7.

"We noticed him being extremely close to everything," Mrs. Fisher said, adding his Sunday school teachers reported he was looking at them sideways.

There is no treatment or cure for Stargardt's disease. Philip has glasses that take some of the stress off his eyes, which use 4,000 times the energy to read print as normal eyes do, but they don't correct his vision.

"He functions pretty much with his peripheral vision," his mother said. "He can see things we can't sometimes."

Classified as legally blind, Philip will never be able to drive a car.

Philip enjoys playing dress-up, pretending to be such characters as the Lone Ranger, Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker, Davy Crockett or a baseball player.

Because Philip finds it difficult to watch television, he often listens to old-time radio shows on cassettes.

"Since he can't see, it's most enjoyable to him to listen to cassettes. He listens to old-time radio shows. That's where he got all of his heroes," Mrs. Fisher said.

Because Stargardt's disease is so rare, Philip had to be diagnosed by a doctor in Philadelphia. The Fishers make the trip once a year so doctors can check Philip's eyes for deterioration.

Although the disease is genetic, no one else in the family has it. Philip has two sisters, Lydia, 7, and Sari, 20, and a brother, Aaron, 19.

Mrs. Fisher said they're grateful Philip did not lose his eyesight completely.

"We give credit to Christ Jesus for everything we have. We're thankful he didn't go completely blind," she said. "The Lord has blessed us. We feel lucky, actually."