Thank you for making Proud Stutter’s Impact Campaign Reception
Our Impact Campaign Kickoff was celebrated on December 4, 2024. A fabulous group of stars, community members, and supporters came together to support Proud Stutter’s mission: To Create safer spaces for the stuttering community in as many corners of our society as possible and shift the stuttering narrative away from harmful stereotypes and towards looking at stuttering as simply a way of speaking, not something that has to be fixed.
Ed Begley Jr, an esteemed actor, was a special guest at the event and we are so grateful to him for coming. He has long been involved in activism for important issues, and has most recently gotten involved with the stuttering community after noticing occasional difficulties with speaking related to his Parkinson’s diagnosis. Check out his incredible memoir To the Temple of Tranquility...And Step On It! to learn more about his life.
Katie Hettenbach, our emcee for the night, spoke about her journey into comedy as a person who stutters. Then she introduced our first speaker, Burbank City Council Member Konstantine Anthony. Konstantine spoke about the importance of representation of people with disabilities in the media is, especially for members of marginalized communities.
Our next speaker was Jay Jordan, who gave a touching story of his son, who also stutters, and how it can be easier to advocate for others while remaining silent about the issues that most deeply affect ourselves. He recounted how he met Maya and has become an advocate for the stuttering community.
Issac Bailey then took the stage to speak about the impact of his stutter on the intersection of his personal life and career as a journalist and professor.
Tessa Andrade and Maya Chupkov closed the lineup of speakers with speeches about goals for their documentary film project and its impact campaign. Afterwards, the crowd gathered around the stage and they screened a preview of the film, which is in development.
Thank you to everyone who attended and donated, and to all of our volunteers and vendors! We had a spectacular night and the event was everything we could have hoped for.
Donate to the impact campaign here. To contribute to future Proud Stutter events & fundraisers, email our team at info@proudstutter.org.
Support our Impact Campaign!
Learn More About Stuttering
Roughly 1% of the population has been diagnosed with some form of stuttering, but the actual number is thought to be much higher.
Many famous people stutter, including Emily Blunt, Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, Ed Sheeran, and even Joe Biden.
Stuttering tends to run in families and may have a genetic component
People who stutter don’t do so when they sing because this uses a different part of the brain.
Stuttering is more prevalent in men than women, with roughly four times as many men stuttering.
Stuttering is highly situational. A person may not stutter one day and struggle with a lot the next.
Thank You!
We offer our deepest gratitude to our sponsors and supporters for their most generous support.
Disability Rights CA
Diversability
AfroLA
CommunicationFirst
National Stuttering Association
WithVR
New Disabled South
Speech at Dartmouth College
Department of Communication Disorder at California State University - Los Angeles
Burbank Podcast Studio
Hot Bricks
Bruce The Better Bartender
MPC Catering
Davidson College’s Speech Department
Whissp
Ability Magazine
Ability E
Raasch Photography