Foundation’s Anti-Stigma Song Receives Recognition

Gaia Tossing, the author and performer of the official anti-stigma song of the Initiative for the Defeat of Stigma, receives award for Distinguished Service during Disability Awareness Night at Chicago’s Cellular One Field.

Chicago, IL August 31, 2006-- The Initiative for the Defeat of Stigma is pleased to announce that Gaia Tossing, co-author and creative performing artist of the first anti-stigma song, “I Am More,” is a 2006 recipient of the Maxwell J Schleifer Distinguished Service Award from Exceptional Parent Foundation.  The award was sponsored by Mass Mutual Life Insurance Company and presented at Cellular One Field (home of the Chicago White Sox) on August 31, 2006 by Mr. Joe Valenzano of EP Foundation for Education.  The award presentation was a component of Disability Awareness Night at Cellular One Field, an event spotlighting the needs and contributions of 54 million Americans with disabilities - America’s largest minority.

The award recipient, Gaia Tossing, has devoted her career to building confidence, understanding, and mutual respect among all children, especially for children with disabilities.  Gaia performs all of her songs with sign language to be inclusive of children who are deaf, and to introduce this beautiful language to the hearing community.  She travels extensively to schools, libraries, and special events to inspire students, teachers, and families with the message that Every Kid Counts.

Ms. Tossing has earned three EMMY Awards for her Sing 'n Sign TV Specials in which children with and without disabilities learned to perform together on-camera as part of Gaia's KidSign Club.  Gaia and her husband, writer/producer Ed Tossing, co-wrote the song, “I Am More.”  “I Am More” was commissioned by the Simon Foundation for Continence in 2003 to help launch the organization’s Defeating Stigma in Healthcare Campaign.  The Simon Foundation (www.simonfoundation.org) is a not-for-profit organization providing education and support to people with incontinence.  Although 33 million Americans suffer from incontinence, it is widely regarded as a taboo subject due to the immense stigma surrounding the topic.

Cheryle Gartley, president and founder of the Simon Foundation is also the co-founder of the Initiative for the Defeat of Stigma (www.defeatingstigma.org).  The Initiative was co-founded in the summer of 2006 by Ms. Gartley and Rick Rader, M.D.  Dr. Rader is the Editor in Chief of Exceptional Parent Magazine and has devoted his career to meeting the needs of individuals with development disabilities.

The mission of the Initiative for the Defeat of Stigma is: "To build awareness of the negative impact of stigma on the individual, the community, and society and to bring about attitudinal and behavioral changes that dignify our individual differences."  The organization’s goals are: to educate healthcare providers of the existence of their own stigmatizing of patients which can lead to sub-optimal healthcare; to educate children early in life to the rewards of welcoming and accepting individual difference; and to challenge the public to take an inventory of the degree to which they stigmatize and to help people to understand that stigmatizing behavior is a loose-loose transaction.

“I Am More” has been adopted as the theme song of the Initiative for the Defeat of Stigma.  Gaia Tossing is co-chair of the campaign's education committee and currently travels to sing and sign “I Am More” as an ambassador for the defeating stigma campaign to raise awareness about the effects of stigmatizing.

Contact Information

Jasmine Schmidt

The Initiative for the Defeat of Stigma

http://www.defeatingstigma.org

847.847.3913