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Music Legend Stevie Wonder to Accept Award at AAPD Gala
By Staff
posted Feb 22, 2010, 17:08
Music Legend Stevie Wonder to Accept Award at AAPD Gala
Singer, Musician, Composer, Songwriter and recently appointed UN Messenger
of Peace to be presented with first ever Image Award
(Washington) The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the
country's largest cross-disability membership organization, is honored to announce
music legend Stevie Wonder will be the first recipient of the AAPD Image Award.
Wonder will be presented with the award at the 2010 AAPD Leadership Gala on
March 10 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington,
DC. This is the first time the organization has honored an entertainer whose
personal example helps to improve the way people with disabilities are perceived
by society.
"Stevie Wonder is a global leader who has used his extraordinary talents
to be an ambassador for civil rights and social justice," said Andrew J.
Imparato, President and CEO of AAPD. "We're thrilled to be able to recognize
his achievements with this inaugural award."
Wonder, who has been blind since infancy, has helped define the sound of R&B
and Pop music. A 25 time Grammy Award winner as well as the recipient of an
Academy Award, Wonder is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the
Songwriters Hall of Fame. His advocacy work is well known ranging from the anti-apartheid
movement to work in the disability community. Most recently, he was chosen as
the United Nations Messenger of Peace on International Day of Persons with Disabilities
in 2009.
Wonder's catalogue of classic hits from such albums as "Innervisions,"
"Fulfillingness' First Finale," "Songs In The Key Of Life,"
etc., include "Uptight (Everything's All Right)," "For Once In
My Life," "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours," "You Are
The Sunshine Of My Life," "I Just Called To Say I Love You,"
and the rallying song, "Happy Birthday," that helped make Martin Luther
King Day a national holiday. In 2008 Wonder received the Library of Congress
Gershwin Prize for Popular Song and in 2009 performed his Library of Congress
musical commission, "Sketches Of A Life."
In addition to the presentation of the AAPD Image Award at the event, Rep.
Steny Hoyer (D-MD) will be presented with the Spirit of the ADA award, emerging
disability rights leaders Don Dew and Lawrence Carter-Long will be presented
with AAPD's 2010 Paul G. Hearne Award and AAPD board member Ted Kennedy, Jr.
will present Connie Garner, longtime Policy Advisor to his father, the late
Sen. Ted Kennedy, with a Justice for All Award for 15 years of service to Senator
Kennedy and the disability community in the U.S. Senate.
Fashion designer Betsey Johnson, who lent her unique design to the event logo
and décor, will also be on hand to support the organization at the event.
The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the country's
largest cross-disability membership organization, organizes the disability community
to be a powerful voice for change – politically, economically, and socially.
AAPD was founded in 1995 to help unite the diverse community of people with
disabilities, including their family, friends and supporters, and to be a national
voice for change in implementing the goals of the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA).
Resources:
American Association of People With Disabilities: www.aapd-dc.org
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