I am really pleased to report on a great newspaper article that was printed in my local Times Union, Albany NY on Friday October 9. Perfect timing for Stuttering Awareness going on this month.

This is an article and video clip about our local middle school that was having auditions to be “The Voice of Meyers” at Myers Middle School. This person,” The Voice” gets to read the morning announcements every day at school over the public address system.  For middle school students, this is a big deal. It adds prestige to the otherwise pre-pubescent, stressful daily grind of 12-14 year old kids.

What caught my eye about this article was one of the students, a 14 year old named William, stutters and felt confident enough to audition and raise his voice. The first lines read, “William Williams does not want to stutter in front of 700 people. He inhales sharply so he has enough air and grabs the microphone.” At first, I thought maybe the use of the word stutter was arbitrary and might be used negatively, but as it turns out, the kids stutters and his story was positively showcased in this article and video clip. It’s a great story of courage by William and encouragement by school staff.

William was not chosen to be the voice of Myers Middle school, but he is eyeing a future in student government. Kudos to him. And the school. And the local media for running this story, and showing living with stuttering everday in a very positive light. 

Read the text of the newspaper article here. “Albany students raise a ‘voice’.”

Watch the clip of the video here!