STAR3 Project Director meets John Glenn and Gabby Giffords

Wayne Foster with Gabby Giffords and Vicki McCready

Earlier this month, Wayne A. Foster, the school system’s STAR3 Project Director, was able to meet and spend time with John Glenn, the former Senator and astronaut, and Gabrielle Dee “Gabby” Giffords, the former Congresswoman from Arizona who was shot in 2011 during a rampage that left six people dead and 13 injured.

Foster was attending the annual convention of the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) in Atlanta. Each year, the association gives out an award called "The Annie." It was named after Glenn’s wife, Annie, who was able to overcome a severe stutter through speech therapy.

This year, the award this year went to Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly. Both couples were present. “I am currently on the Board of Directors for ASHA,” Foster said, “and was able to spend time talking with all four of these wonderful people during a reception prior to the formal awards ceremony that was attended by nearly 5,000 individuals.”
 
 “On a personal note, one thing that I took away from this event was that the media was not able to convey just how much this tragedy has impacted ‘real’ people. Seeing Ms. Giffords and her husband was more poignant than any newscast could ever be. This shooting took away a great deal from those people and from America, too. John Glenn led off the award by talking about his wife. Annie Glenn followed and gave a wonderful talk about the Giffords. Gabby came onto the stage with the help of her husband where she gave her first formal speech since the shooting - all of six sentences that she delivered with grace and dignity. She said that she was ‘getting better all the time.’ Mark Kelly said a few words and then all four were given a long and loud standing ovation that lasted several minutes. Clearly, the crowd was touched by the event."

Giffords’ speech/language therapy team hails from the western part of North Carolina. This group of therapists was also at the formal ceremony and got special attention from Mark Kelly. The photograph above is Foster, Giffords and Vicki McCready, a retired member of the faculty of the Communication Disorders Department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She also received an award during the ceremony.