National Stuttering Awareness Week

Hello to all the millions of you who stutter of have family members who stutter!
Did you know many recognize the dates of May 11-17 as National Stuttering awareness week? Personally, I am quite aware of my stuttering through out the year, but when I found out about this I thought I should let others know also.

This was an idea by a person named Paul Castellano, with help from Barbara Koval. I'm guessing that in the mid 80's before things like the internet, many people didn't know squat about stuttering or that it was very misunderstood, and for those who did stutter there probably wasn't as much help and I'm sure many felt lonely. So determined people like Paul and Barbara took it upon themselves to start a thing like National Stuttering Awareness Week. Paul had a pretty severe stutter but he was able to muster up enough courage to present himself before several US Congressional subcommittees to raise much needed public awareness on the subject of stuttering. Paul and Barbara worked very hard to make NSAW a reality. Finally, in early April of 1988, Paul and Barb appeared at the US Capitol along with some important people for a ceremony that established NSAW.

Originally, this was to be a one time thing, but other organizations for stuttering have taken a liking to the idea and as it is, National Stuttering Awareness Week is promoted every year on the the second week of May.

So kudos to the efforts of Carl and Barbara and kudos to Ronald Reagan! They have done quite a service in being a major catalyst in spreading the knowledge and increasing efforts to make the problem of stuttering better for all of us. And to the people reading this, Have a nice week all of you! :)