A new name for BAF!!

Clay's Blog, 8-5-2009

08/05/09 New Day!

By now you've seen the new National Inclusion Project website and hopefully you are exploring it. One thing that you will come across as you are looking around is something that I am most excited about: the new Bubel/Aiken Founder's Award.

As the website states, it's an award that will be given for outstanding volunteer service to be given annually beginning with the 2009 Champions Gala on October 17, 2009. It was through grassroots volunteer efforts that the National Inclusion Project was started and it is through those efforts that we have been able to make such huge strides for inclusion nationwide.

The award will recognize a person or group who fully embraces the mission of the National Inclusion Project and makes an "above and beyond" effort to raise awareness and support year-round. The staff and Board will be choosing finalists from the nominations that YOU submit, and Diane and I will be selecting the winner personally each year from what I know will be a tremendous amount of qualified and deserving nominees.

You guys have been SOOOOO instrumental in making the organization as successful as it has been this past six years.. and we strongly feel it's important to recognize the folks who we all know have worked so hard. YOU!

Check out the new www.inclusionproject.org to learn about the nominating process and find the form to nominate yourself or other who you find deserving!

This news of the new website is very exciting for all of us.

(for those of you who were hoping for something different... sorry. Just be excited for this, and I promise we'll get you something else "soon"!)

c

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Smart or Lucky?

 Clay Aiken

It seems that my blogs always mention how lucky we are to be fans of Clay Aiken. I may have also mentioned how smart we are to have chosen this man to follow.  Nothing’s changed!

This weekend, while apparently in LA with Jaymes and Parker, Clay chose to go to the fan club message board in order to answer questions.  He set up the rules (teacher that he is) and as long as the rules were respected he made himself available to the fans and opened up to the fans.  What a guy!

There are cynics around that think he did this just to up the memberships at the fan club. They say that he has no career news to share and he wanted to keep us “on the hook”. Frankly, that’s not what I think, but if it was true I can only think of that as good business.

As long as I have been a fan (since Day 1), I have fantasized about what it would be like to just hang out with Clay. I have wondered what an evening on the couch, in the family room would be like.  I now think I know a little bit more of what that would be like.  Clay has shared his thoughts – some serious, some silly – and let us feel kind of like we are hanging out on the couch with him. He has treated us as friends and I, for one, feel honored and lucky! (and smart!)

by QBbabe 

For more information please visit   Clay News Network
And to donate, please go to  Bubel Aiken Foundation

Dancing Like The Stars

2009

April 26, 2009, at 1pm
N.C. State Fairgrounds

Read all about it here 

Clay Aiken News Network

and here

DancingLikeTheStars2009

Isn't That Crazy?

Many years ago I attended a wedding. It was a Catholic ceremony with a full mass and was very formal and "by the book". My impression of the Catholic church was one of mystery, ritual, formality and little, if any, personality. Imagine my surprise when the priest said, "So Jim and Marilyn are getting married. Isn't that crazy?" What priest says that? What officiant pooh poohs the idea of marriage?

He then went on to say that none of us knows what will happen tomorrow, or next month or next year or certainly not in 5, 10, 25 or 50 years! He said it was crazy for this couple to make the commitment they were making when they had no idea what the future would bring. Then he said, "How beautiful! How beautiful that, despite not knowing, they are sure that they will face it together."

Well here we are in the latest drought. We've been here before, but that doesn't make it any easier. This time we have to feel a little less important to Clay. He has a son now. He has a relationship with Jaymes that is far more involved than when we thought of her as simply his executive producer. From what we know, Clay has a romantic relationship as well. These are RL for him. These are people who affect him daily in ways that fans never will.

We also know now that Clay has parted ways with RCA. Most of us believe that's a good thing. We also know that OMWH did not sell well when compared with his previous albums or whe compared to some other artists. That alone could be a whole separate blog!

In spite of these things, we believe that we will see him again. We believe that "the best is yet to come" ~tmJaymes. We believe that his career is still in its early stages and that all he is capable of doing will happen. We believe that he will tour for us. We believe that he will keep making albums and that they will be successful. We believe that he will be in movies and on TV and back on Broadway again sometime. We believe that TBAF will continue to grow and help children on a huge scale. We believe that the children of the world will continue to benefit from Clay's UNICEF ambassadorship. We believe that he loves us.

Isn't that crazy? How beautiful!

2009 Golfing for Inclusion

2009 Golfing for Inclusion

Monday, January 26

Palm Beach Gardens, FL

Click here for event details.

Join hosts Clay Aiken and
PGA Professional Wayne Player
to benefit The Bubel/Aiken Foundation

Champions of Change

I was asked to write a blog about the Gala. I am embarrassed to say that I have not paid that much attention to it this year. I am on a tight budget this year and couldn't stand to see all of the wonderful items being auctioned off on which I am unable to bid. Even though last year I thought I might be able to go this year, that hasn't happened either. So let me talk about the Gala in more general terms if that's okay. Let me marvel about the Bubel Aiken Foundation and all of the good it does. Let me be absolutely in awe of the dedication that created the foundation, the devotion that keeps it growing and the vision that will maintain it for years to come. Let me also mention Clay who said he wanted his image removed from the logo. He wants the Foundation to be about the Foundation. He wants it to be about the kids that it benefits and about the volunteers who do so much to promote inclusion. And yet, he appears at the Gala and sings for the attendees and personally thanks the people who are carrying the message.
Face it - we started the BAF. Clay thought of it, wrote about it, conceptualized it and dreamed of it. We found out about the dream and we sent money, pledged support and volunteered our time and, just like that, a charitable foundation was born. Now it grows and as that happens, more and more children are reaping the benefit of Clay and Diane's dream. I think that's pretty awesome!
Now to the Gala - the Champions of Change. We have all seen awards shows, we know about industry dinners and balls and self congratulatory events. In my own professional life I have attended these events where people are honored. Here's the difference, though - at all of those it seems that the industry is honoring itself. These things are a lot of self aggrandizement and a lot of patting themselves on the back. The Oscars honor the industry - not the people who go to the movies and pay for the tickets that allow the industry to flourish. The Emmys don't honor the couch potatoes with remotes in hand. I work in the construction field. We don't honor the tenants and owners who move into our spaces or hire us to build them. We honor those of us who build the spaces the best.
The Bubel Aiken Foundation, though, honors the beneficiaries. It honors and rewards the people who make it possible for the dream to come alive. It honors and thanks the very people for whom it was created - the kids and adults who have embraced inclusion and who work so very hard to make it a reality.
Now that's a reason for a Gala!

2008 Champions Of Change Gala