What's It All About for Clay and for the Fans

"Some people, who wish to only concentrate on hypocrisy, should be reminded that this is what it's all about." Polly Graf



Caregiving: Clay Aiken is about inclusionBy ALEX CUKANUPI Correspondent

When most celebrities talk about being a role model, they mean not getting arrested or driving drunk, but when Clay Aiken talks about being a role model, he demonstrates how to treat people with physical and intellectual challenges.

Aiken started a foundation, raised a lot of money for charity and became a UNICEF ambassador for education, but he also serves as unofficial caregiver spokesman and role model.

Inclusion is what Aiken is all about. Shortly after he placed second on Fox-TV's American Idol in 2003 and began his professional singing career, Aiken founded the Bubel/Aiken Foundation, which supports opportunities for children with developmental disabilities to have a full range of childhood experiences their peers enjoy.

Camp Gonzo, a summer camp program that brings the YMCA experience to children with disabilities, is one such program. Aiken, who worked with autistic children as a college student, thinks children with disabilities grow and develop better when they do things with other children because they model their behavior after the other children. In addition, he thinks it's unfair that not all children can participate in sports, parties, camp and other activities including service.

The foundation makes Able to Serve grants of up to $2,000 each to youth with disabilities for community service projects for National Youth Service Day.

"Conventional wisdom often looks upon youth with disabilities as a population to be served BY volunteers, instead of as a group that can serve AS volunteers," said Aiken last April, before he went off with children with intellectual disabilities to plant trees in a Hollywood, Fla., neighborhood. "We seek to change this misperception by engaging youth with disabilities to serve, create and lead others in service projects on National Youth Service Day and every day of the year."

For all I know, Mick Jagger's fans have been holding bake sales for charity for the last 50 years, but not only does Aiken raise a lot of money for charity, and donate to charity, so do his fans.

One Web site, the Clayboard, recently raised more than $10,000 for their Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF fundraiser, and in November they raised $10,427 for the Bubel/Aiken Foundation in honor of Aiken's birthday Nov. 30.

They raise money collecting spare change at concerts and they hold fundraisers and provide "acts of kindness" -- the members of the Mishawaka, Ind., Clay Aiken Meetup Group sent a small gift to each child in every hospital in Raleigh, N.C., Aiken's hometown, on his birthday.

In between recording and several U.S. tours, Aiken was the keynote speaker at the Fort Lauderdale Fearless Caregiver Conference in 2005 sponsored by the Caregiver Media Group, which emphasizes caring for the caregivers, and he has also been featured twice on the cover of Today's Caregiver magazine.

Aiken "gets" caregiving in a way that few do -- that it's all about caring -- and that those who need caregiving are often stigmatized and ostracized.

Among his fans, mostly women ages 2 to 92 with a growing male following, a lot are caregivers. A lot live though more challenges in a day than some people do in a year.
Many fans have formed their own community on the Internet where they share information on Aiken's tours and albums and non-Aiken related stories. Some have made a hobby of counting Aiken's eyelashes, but there have also been numerous stories of how Aiken's example has changed their own behavior.

One woman told how she had ignored a small child in her apartment complex who was clearly going through a hard time until she asked herself, "How would Clay treat that child?" He would befriend the child, she thought, and as a result she befriended him and his family, and marveled how little we know about our neighbors.

A man admitted that people with disabilities had made him uncomfortable, but while at a dinner that included some who were blind, he decided to "act like Clay" and he became his table's host, introducing people, including them all in the conversation, and as a result it became one of the best nights of his life.

There are a lot of stories like that -- too numerous to mention here, but, once all the records sales, tour dates and donations are tallied, Aiken's example to remove the stigma of disabilities may be his most notable accomplishment as an entertainer.

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Christian Music Planet - Jan/Feb. 05

Though the record industry and media have been extremely supportive in their relationships with Aiken and his ideals thus far, such sentiments have especially rubbed off on "Claymates," the fans who continuously congregate by his side. Not only have they swooped up CDs, concert tickets and the book, they always remind their hero to stand firm in his faith."They are, without doubt or question, the most passionate and dedicated fans I have ever heard of," he concedes. "I could not have been blessed with a more supportive group of fans. They not only support me, but also support the causes that are important to me. That, perhaps, has been the biggest blessing."