The Bubel/Aiken Foundation is pleased to announce its 2008 Champion of Change honorees, with awards to be presented at a gala benefit dinner celebrating the fifth anniversary of the foundation. The benefit and awards dinner will be held at 5 PM on Saturday, October 18, 2008, at the Marriott City Center Hotel in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Foundation selects Champions of Change for their substantive efforts to extend the boundaries of the human experience to children of all abilities, in keeping with the Foundation’s mission of supporting communities with inclusive programs and creating awareness about the possibilities that inclusion can bring.
This year’s honorees are:
CVS Caremark, Corporate Champion of Change
Dan Habib and Betsy McNamara, Champions of Change
Rich Donovan, Champion of Change
CVS Caremark Charitable Trust is being honored as a Corporate Champion of Change for their outstanding efforts to improve the lives of children with disabilities. The five-year, $25 million CVS Caremark All Kids Can program supports nonprofit organizations helping children with disabilities in school, in recreation and in developing skills for successful lives, all within an inclusive environment.
Champions of Change Dan Habib and Betsy McNamara turned their personal goal of educational and social inclusion for their son Samuel into a universal goal of ensuring that all children have the tools to reach their full potential. The result is the film Including Samuel, which tells their son’s story of inclusion, along with the trials and triumphs of four other subjects. Dan is an award-winning photojournalist, director and producer of documentary films. Betsy is a fundraising consultant and an inclusion advocate who is the mother of Samuel, who has cerebral palsy, and Isaiah, who is typically developing.
Rich Donovan is being recognized as a Champion of Change for applying his world-class business acumen to creating means of empowerment for people with disabilities. He was a key to Merrill Lynch’s diversity strategy. As CEO of Integrated Process Solutions, Rich provides large corporations and governments with ready-for-action profit opportunities as a “return on disability”. Rich, who happens to have cerebral palsy, is Board Chairman of Lime Connect, showing real-life solutions – and real financial advantages – to hiring, working with, and providing products and services for people with disabiities. In serving children, he is an advocate of education as essential to the future economic and social success of individuals with disabilities.
The gala benefit celebration will feature a special performance by Clay Aiken, as well as dinner, and silent and live auctions, in support of the Foundation’s programs providing children with disabilities the opportunity to play, learn and grow side-by-side with their typical peers.
We invite you to join us in honoring our outstanding Champions of Change, and in celebrating The Bubel/Aiken Foundation’s five years of success in providing comprehensive educational and social opportunities in an inclusive environment for all children.