July 2nd, 2010
'Idol' Judges and the Parent's Television Council Hope NotThe rumors have been flying for a few weeks now, ever since
American Idol judge Simon Cowell announced that he would be leaving the hit FOX show after this season. With longtime judge Paula Abdul already gone, many fans are wondering who will replace Simon Cowell on
American Idol. And one of the most talked-about names floating around is Sirius Radio's raunchy shock jock, Howard Stern.
According to the Chicago Sun Times,
American Idol's newest judge, Ellen DeGeneres, has already said she will leave the show if Stern joins the
Idol panel. Fans of Stern's Sirius XM show have heard him trash DeGeneres in the past, including dissing her as an
Idol judge. Meanwhile USA Today reports that judge Kara DioGuardi is not too keen on the prospect of bringing Stern on either, saying, "I don't think he has a musical background...If you're going to replace Simon, you have to have that background."
And while
Idol's Randy Jackson has been mum about the Stern rumors, Stern had a few words to say about Jackson, telling his Sirius audience last week, "Can you imagine me sitting there with like a little ping-pong paddle, and I smack Randy Jackson's belly every time he opens his dopey mouth?"
According to Billboard, Stern has verified that American Idol producers are interested in him and would reportedly consider paying him his required $100 million dollar salary. Stern also called
American Idol a "karaoke contest" (but one he would be willing to judge for 100 mil) and said if he were a judge, "looks would play into the judging, too... I would be honest with them. I would say, 'Look at you. You're out of shape, go work out.' It would be sort of like 'The Biggest Loser' and 'American Idol' combined."
But while Howard Stern certainly has a fan base, many people think he wouldn't be right for
Idol. Because
American Idol is considered a family show, the Parents Television Council is up in arms over the Stern chatter, asking FOX to address the rumors. The PTC has even started a petition to keep Stern off of
Idol.If he were hired for the show, would Howard Stern be able to clean up his act for
American idol's mixed viewing audience? That remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure- Stern would make Simon Cowell look like a lamb. Not that the shock jock is a big, bad wolf or anything (okay, well maybe a little), but contestants would need to have a
very thick skin in order to audition for
American Idol if the Howard Stern is brought on board.
Sources:
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/2040270,american-idol-howard-stern-021010.article
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/idolchatter/post/2010/02/kara-dioguardi-ellen-degeneres-brings-sense-of-humor-to-american-idol/1
Howard Stern Show, Sirius XM, February 9, 2010
http://www.billboard.com/news/howard-stern-addresses-american-idol-judge-1004065889.story
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/news/release/2010/0210.asp\
'Idol' Judges and the Parent's Television Council Hope Not
The rumors have been flying for a few weeks now, ever since
American Idol judge Simon Cowell announced that he would be leaving the hit FOX show after this season. With longtime judge Paula Abdul already gone, many fans are wondering who will replace Simon Cowell on
American Idol. And one of the most talked-about names floating around is Sirius Radio's raunchy shock jock, Howard Stern.
According to the Chicago Sun Times,
American Idol's newest judge, Ellen DeGeneres, has already said she will leave the show if Stern joins the
Idol panel. Fans of Stern's Sirius XM show have heard him trash DeGeneres in the past, including dissing her as an
Idol judge. Meanwhile USA Today reports that judge Kara DioGuardi is not too keen on the prospect of bringing Stern on either, saying, "I don't think he has a musical background...If you're going to replace Simon, you have to have that background."
And while
Idol's Randy Jackson has been mum about the Stern rumors, Stern had a few words to say about Jackson, telling his Sirius audience last week, "Can you imagine me sitting there with like a little ping-pong paddle, and I smack Randy Jackson's belly every time he opens his dopey mouth?"
According to Billboard, Stern has verified that American Idol producers are interested in him and would reportedly consider paying him his required $100 million dollar salary. Stern also called
American Idol a "karaoke contest" (but one he would be willing to judge for 100 mil) and said if he were a judge, "looks would play into the judging, too... I would be honest with them. I would say, 'Look at you. You're out of shape, go work out.' It would be sort of like 'The Biggest Loser' and 'American Idol' combined."
But while Howard Stern certainly has a fan base, many people think he wouldn't be right for
Idol. Because
American Idol is considered a family show, the Parents Television Council is up in arms over the Stern chatter, asking FOX to address the rumors. The PTC has even started a petition to keep Stern off of
Idol.If he were hired for the show, would Howard Stern be able to clean up his act for
American idol's mixed viewing audience? That remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure- Stern would make Simon Cowell look like a lamb. Not that the shock jock is a big, bad wolf or anything (okay, well maybe a little), but contestants would need to have a
very thick skin in order to audition for
American Idol if the Howard Stern is brought on board.
Sources:
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/2040270,american-idol-howard-stern-021010.article
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/idolchatter/post/2010/02/kara-dioguardi-ellen-degeneres-brings-sense-of-humor-to-american-idol/1
Howard Stern Show, Sirius XM, February 9, 2010
http://www.billboard.com/news/howard-stern-addresses-american-idol-judge-1004065889.story
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/news/release/2010/0210.asp\
September 2nd, 2010
The Obama space proposal, which seeks to enable a commercial space industry for transportation to and from low Earth orbit while it cancels space exploration beyond LEO, has sparked a kind of civil war among conservatives.
Some conservatives hate the proposal because of the retreat from the high frontier and even go so far as to cast doubt on the commercial space aspects. Other conservatives like the commercial space part of the Obama policy and tend to gloss over the cancellation of space exploration or even denigrate the Constellation program as "unworkable" or "unsustainable."
In a way the discussion is a clash between two threads of conservatism, one that touts limited government and the empowerment of the private sector, the other that touts national security and national greatness as virtues as well.
Charles Krauthammer wrote a piece in Friday's Washington Post that bemoans the retreat from space exploration that the Obama plan entails. Krauthammer also doubts that the private sector can step up in the timeframe suggested by the Obama plan.
"It would be swell for private companies to take over launching astronauts. But they cannot do it. It's too expensive. It's too experimental. And the safety standards for getting people up and down reliably are just unreachably high.
"Sure, decades from now there will be a robust private space-travel industry. But that is a long time."
Krauthammer also denounces airy talk of how the Obama plan will get us to Mars, sometime in the 2030s.
"Of course, the whole Mars project as substitute for the moon is simply a ruse. It's like the classic bait-and-switch for high-tech military spending: Kill the doable in the name of some distant sophisticated alternative, which either never gets developed or is simply killed later in the name of yet another, even more sophisticated alternative of the further future."
On the other hand, Newt Gingrich and Bob Walker, both former members of Congress, like the commercial space aspects of the Obama plan just fine.
"The use of commercial launch companies to carry cargo and crews into low earth orbit will be controversial, but it should not be. The launch-vehicle portion of the Constellation program was so far behind schedule that the United States was not going to have independent access for humans into space for at least five years after the shutdown of the shuttle. We were going to rely upon the Russians to deliver our astronaut personnel to orbit. We have long had a cooperative arrangement with the Russians for space transportation but always have possessed our own capability. The use of commercial carriers in the years ahead will preserve that kind of independent American access.
"Reliance on commercial launch services will provide many other benefits. It will open the doors to more people having the opportunity to go to space. It has the potential of creating thousands of new jobs, largely the kind of high-tech work to which our nation should aspire. In the same way the railroads opened the American West, commercial access can open vast new opportunities in space. All of this new activity will expand the space enterprise, and in doing so, will improve the economic competitiveness of our country."
Gingrich and Walker tend to gloss over the cancellation of the space exploration program in the Obama plan.
"Getting the agency out of the low-earth-orbit launch business frees up budget to do other exciting and valuable things. It permits development work to start in earnest on a heavy-lift launch vehicle capable of solar-system exploration. It enables expansion of the aeronautics budget, particularly in helping develop the next-generation air-traffic-control system, a technological goal that will pay huge dividends to the United States. It will permit new investments in robotic space missions and Earth science missions. In essence, the new spending plan takes NASA back to its roots of advanced technology development, experimentation and exploration."
What the Obama plan does not do is to permit American space explorers to venture beyond low Earth orbit for at least the next two possibly three decades. The decision is purely budget driven. Leaving aside the calumny that the Constellation program was somehow flawed, a position hotly disputed by the Augustine Committee, the sad truth is that the Obama administration does not want to explore space, does not want to pay the extra three or so billion a year it will take, and therefore has settled from a low level technology R&D program and has kicked a return to the Moon or any other deep space exploration down the road well past the end of the Obama administration.
The irony is that both Krauthammer on the one hand and Gingrich and Walker on the other are right about certain aspects of the Obama space proposal. But like the blind men examining the elephant they are each only getting part of the truth.
Krauthammer is right that the Obama space plan represents a craven retreat from the high frontier of space, a cancellation of space exploration for decades to come. But Gingrich and Walker are also right that empowering the commercial sector in space will have great benefit. The two views are not incompatible.
The strategy implied by the space approach first conducted by the Bush administration was that as commercial industry took over space activities in low Earth orbit, NASA would be free to explore space beyond low Earth orbit. But that space program was undermined by flawed execution. Space commercialization was restricted to cargo and not people. The Constellation program was vastly underfunded and therefore was mired by schedule slippages and technical challenges.
This all suggests the possibility of a unified conservative response to the Obama space proposal. This would embrace the commercial space empowerment goal, but at the same time insist that there be a space exploration effort that is vigorously pursued and adequately funded. Such a response would embrace the spirit of the Bush space policy, while fulfilling its promise.
Sources: Closing the new frontier, Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, February 12, 2010
Obama's brave reboot for NASA, Newt Gingrich and Robert Walker, Washington Times, February 12th, 2010
The Obama space proposal, which seeks to enable a commercial space industry for transportation to and from low Earth orbit while it cancels space exploration beyond LEO, has sparked a kind of civil war among conservatives.
Some conservatives hate the proposal because of the retreat from the high frontier and even go so far as to cast doubt on the commercial space aspects. Other conservatives like the commercial space part of the Obama policy and tend to gloss over the cancellation of space exploration or even denigrate the Constellation program as "unworkable" or "unsustainable."
In a way the discussion is a clash between two threads of conservatism, one that touts limited government and the empowerment of the private sector, the other that touts national security and national greatness as virtues as well.
Charles Krauthammer wrote a piece in Friday's Washington Post that bemoans the retreat from space exploration that the Obama plan entails. Krauthammer also doubts that the private sector can step up in the timeframe suggested by the Obama plan.
"It would be swell for private companies to take over launching astronauts. But they cannot do it. It's too expensive. It's too experimental. And the safety standards for getting people up and down reliably are just unreachably high.
"Sure, decades from now there will be a robust private space-travel industry. But that is a long time."
Krauthammer also denounces airy talk of how the Obama plan will get us to Mars, sometime in the 2030s.
"Of course, the whole Mars project as substitute for the moon is simply a ruse. It's like the classic bait-and-switch for high-tech military spending: Kill the doable in the name of some distant sophisticated alternative, which either never gets developed or is simply killed later in the name of yet another, even more sophisticated alternative of the further future."
On the other hand, Newt Gingrich and Bob Walker, both former members of Congress, like the commercial space aspects of the Obama plan just fine.
"The use of commercial launch companies to carry cargo and crews into low earth orbit will be controversial, but it should not be. The launch-vehicle portion of the Constellation program was so far behind schedule that the United States was not going to have independent access for humans into space for at least five years after the shutdown of the shuttle. We were going to rely upon the Russians to deliver our astronaut personnel to orbit. We have long had a cooperative arrangement with the Russians for space transportation but always have possessed our own capability. The use of commercial carriers in the years ahead will preserve that kind of independent American access.
"Reliance on commercial launch services will provide many other benefits. It will open the doors to more people having the opportunity to go to space. It has the potential of creating thousands of new jobs, largely the kind of high-tech work to which our nation should aspire. In the same way the railroads opened the American West, commercial access can open vast new opportunities in space. All of this new activity will expand the space enterprise, and in doing so, will improve the economic competitiveness of our country."
Gingrich and Walker tend to gloss over the cancellation of the space exploration program in the Obama plan.
"Getting the agency out of the low-earth-orbit launch business frees up budget to do other exciting and valuable things. It permits development work to start in earnest on a heavy-lift launch vehicle capable of solar-system exploration. It enables expansion of the aeronautics budget, particularly in helping develop the next-generation air-traffic-control system, a technological goal that will pay huge dividends to the United States. It will permit new investments in robotic space missions and Earth science missions. In essence, the new spending plan takes NASA back to its roots of advanced technology development, experimentation and exploration."
What the Obama plan does not do is to permit American space explorers to venture beyond low Earth orbit for at least the next two possibly three decades. The decision is purely budget driven. Leaving aside the calumny that the Constellation program was somehow flawed, a position hotly disputed by the Augustine Committee, the sad truth is that the Obama administration does not want to explore space, does not want to pay the extra three or so billion a year it will take, and therefore has settled from a low level technology R&D program and has kicked a return to the Moon or any other deep space exploration down the road well past the end of the Obama administration.
The irony is that both Krauthammer on the one hand and Gingrich and Walker on the other are right about certain aspects of the Obama space proposal. But like the blind men examining the elephant they are each only getting part of the truth.
Krauthammer is right that the Obama space plan represents a craven retreat from the high frontier of space, a cancellation of space exploration for decades to come. But Gingrich and Walker are also right that empowering the commercial sector in space will have great benefit. The two views are not incompatible.
The strategy implied by the space approach first conducted by the Bush administration was that as commercial industry took over space activities in low Earth orbit, NASA would be free to explore space beyond low Earth orbit. But that space program was undermined by flawed execution. Space commercialization was restricted to cargo and not people. The Constellation program was vastly underfunded and therefore was mired by schedule slippages and technical challenges.
This all suggests the possibility of a unified conservative response to the Obama space proposal. This would embrace the commercial space empowerment goal, but at the same time insist that there be a space exploration effort that is vigorously pursued and adequately funded. Such a response would embrace the spirit of the Bush space policy, while fulfilling its promise.
Sources: Closing the new frontier, Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, February 12, 2010
Obama's brave reboot for NASA, Newt Gingrich and Robert Walker, Washington Times, February 12th, 2010
September 4th, 2010
Gina Marie Incandela, the petite 7-year-old sensation who blessed the spectators at the Orlando Magic playoff games, is poised to move forward with her musical aspirations.
She is not a typical young girl. Gina has autism, but that is not stopping her from following her dreams. "I want to be a rock star," Gina said while she was waiting to perform at the Back-2-School, Back-2-Health event in Orlando July 25 with her mother, Michelle, father Dwayne, sister Alexis (Lexi), grandfather Mort Mescall and other family members.
That day will always be special to Gina. Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty and 3rd District Commissioner Mildred Fernandez proclaimed July 25 "Gina Marie Incandela Day" stating that "despite an early diagnosis of an autistic spectrum disorder, [Gina] exceeded all expectations and defied odds." The proclamation continued to acknowledge that Gina and her parents "worked very hard over the past few years to reach all the social and developmental goals set out for her, and after numerous occupational, speech, language and behavioral therapies, and with the loving support of her family, she has established herself as a vocal star."
Gina is best known for her National Anthem performances at the Orlando Magic games. She gained international recognition with her penetrating rendition at the recent NBA playoff games in the Amway Arena. "Gina Marie captured our collective hearts," Magic Vice-President of Communications and team spokesperson Joel Glass said. "She is absolutely remarkable and truly inspirational to everyone in the Magic family. While serving as the Magic good luck charm, she brought attention to autism and it is our hope that in ways big and small she provided her contagious inspiration to others."
Gina said that performing in front of 30,000 people is exciting for her. "When I sing the National Anthem, I feel like everyone is with me on the stage," she said. Mescall added that Gina will not even perform in small crowds. "If there is a group of eight people, Gina won't sing. But give her a packed stadium and she will sing her heart out."
Following her dreams, Gina is working on a collaboration album that will help benefit The Miracle Project and "is less about research and the cure and more about working to improve the quality of life for children and families with autism living today and applying the transformational techniques inherent in theater to bring out the ability within the disability," Diane Isaacs, executive producer of the project said.
The album, "Fly: Into the World of Autism," features the voices of children with autism. Several well-known artists will be contributing to the effort including Chaka Khan, Stephen Stills and Drew Seeley. Gina will also contribute to the song "Make Some Music" which features Seeley on lead vocals. Isaac's own autistic son, Wyatt, will sing a song with Jack Black featuring Stills on guitar.
Gina's part of the duet with Khan, "Butterfly," was recorded in her sister's room. It's a song about a young child who will emerge as a butterfly in her own time. Jason Lucas, wrote and produced the song and traveled from Los Angeles to Orlando, bringing with him the full, mobile recording equipment. "We were surrounded by stuffed animals and walls painted with cartoon characters, like a little wonderland," Lucas said. "I set up the studio on a children's tea party table and sat on a tiny plastic chair
"Gina would come in and record fifteen minute sessions with me for 2 days. She would step in like a professional, put on her headphones and just do it. Gina did not need two bars of introduction, just a few words. She was very well -rehearsed, thanks to her Mom and family, who provide a very supportive, progressive, yet normal environment."
Lucas described Gina as "a very happy, warm and loving youngster, who is a joy to hang out with." He recalled that Gina "memorized the string names on my guitar having heard them named one time. Two hours later, Michelle, her mother, asked her to name the strings and with very little hesitation and no flaws, she did." "When I first heard about Gina, I knew she had to sing on "Fly: Into the World of Autism" because she flies and redefines the common perception about what a child with autism can do," Isaacs said. "She is a shooting star, as are many of our other child singers. It is a celebration of the many voices of autism to open eyes, ears and hearts to this diagnosis."
The album is scheduled to be released this fall. Updates will be available at ginachildperformer.com/ and at www.themiracleproject.org/. Other celebrity contributors to the project include Rev. Run (from MTV's Runs House and Run DMC) , Ben Vereen, Babyface, Gary Cole and several others.
Gina was first diagnosed with autism when she was two years-old; however, her parents were not sure this diagnosis was correct because they were not familiar with the symptoms. Gina was unable to speak and did not associate with other children well. She would become frustrated and angry because she could not communicate the way she wanted to. Things seemed to be getting worse and not better. The Incandela's soon realized that what they had dismissed as "behavioral quirks" were actually symptoms of autism.
Gina received treatment at UCP of Central Florida from age two through five. She now attends a private school in Kissimmee. "We believe that the early diagnosis and early intervention along with the family support were crucial to her success," Michelle added.
Now, at age seven, Gina "works hard every day to function in a world which she perceives much differently than most," Michelle said. She explained that "through music therapy, Gina's speech improved and through speech therapy, her singing improved and it has brought her full circle."
"Gina does not really know that she has autism," Michelle said. "We have tried to explain it to her, but I don't think she is yet able to see those differences between herself and the other kids. If you ask her whether or not she is different from the other kids she will say 'Yes, I sing really good.' She sees her musical ability as the trait which makes her unique and not her autism."
Autism is a neurological disorder that typically appears during the first three years of life. The illness impacts the normal development of the brain in the areas of social interaction and verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Those with autism may exhibit repeated body movements, unusual responses to other people, attachments to certain objects and have an aversion to any changes in routine activities. There is currently no cure for autism, but the illness is treatable. Donna Lorman, president of the Autism Society of Greater Orlando (http://www.asgo.org/), said that "Gina always amazes me and reminds me of the possibilities."
Donna Helsel, board member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Greater Orlando (http://www.namigo.org/), heard Gina perform at the opening of the Central Florida Behavioral Hospital. "She is fantastic," Helsel said. "She is a wonderful example that early intervention and treatment works."
Gina has performed the National Anthem more than fifty times locally and across the country. In addition to opening for the Orlando Magic, she has appeared at Shea Stadium in New York, Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas and was also a guest on the Today Show. Recently, Gina was asked to return to New York for the US Open Tennis Championship on Labor Day weekend. Topping off her busy schedule, Gina is also working on new recordings of her own that will be available in various formats.
It's difficult to know what the future holds for Gina and her family, but Michelle explained that our plans are to support Gina and her dreams. We want both our girls to ultimately do what takes them happy in life and will do whatever we can to support them in their endeavors. Gina's career choice might change but, hopefully whatever she does it will be something that she loves."
Cranes Roost Park in Altamonte Springs is hosting the 5th annual Orlando Walk Now for Autism fund raising event on November 14. For further information, visit www.walknowforautism.org/orlando.
Additional photos of Gina can be viewed at www.bvphoto.net/musicians
Gina Marie Incandela, the petite 7-year-old sensation who blessed the spectators at the Orlando Magic playoff games, is poised to move forward with her musical aspirations.
She is not a typical young girl. Gina has autism, but that is not stopping her from following her dreams. "I want to be a rock star," Gina said while she was waiting to perform at the Back-2-School, Back-2-Health event in Orlando July 25 with her mother, Michelle, father Dwayne, sister Alexis (Lexi), grandfather Mort Mescall and other family members.
That day will always be special to Gina. Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty and 3rd District Commissioner Mildred Fernandez proclaimed July 25 "Gina Marie Incandela Day" stating that "despite an early diagnosis of an autistic spectrum disorder, [Gina] exceeded all expectations and defied odds." The proclamation continued to acknowledge that Gina and her parents "worked very hard over the past few years to reach all the social and developmental goals set out for her, and after numerous occupational, speech, language and behavioral therapies, and with the loving support of her family, she has established herself as a vocal star."
Gina is best known for her National Anthem performances at the Orlando Magic games. She gained international recognition with her penetrating rendition at the recent NBA playoff games in the Amway Arena. "Gina Marie captured our collective hearts," Magic Vice-President of Communications and team spokesperson Joel Glass said. "She is absolutely remarkable and truly inspirational to everyone in the Magic family. While serving as the Magic good luck charm, she brought attention to autism and it is our hope that in ways big and small she provided her contagious inspiration to others."
Gina said that performing in front of 30,000 people is exciting for her. "When I sing the National Anthem, I feel like everyone is with me on the stage," she said. Mescall added that Gina will not even perform in small crowds. "If there is a group of eight people, Gina won't sing. But give her a packed stadium and she will sing her heart out."
Following her dreams, Gina is working on a collaboration album that will help benefit The Miracle Project and "is less about research and the cure and more about working to improve the quality of life for children and families with autism living today and applying the transformational techniques inherent in theater to bring out the ability within the disability," Diane Isaacs, executive producer of the project said.
The album, "Fly: Into the World of Autism," features the voices of children with autism. Several well-known artists will be contributing to the effort including Chaka Khan, Stephen Stills and Drew Seeley. Gina will also contribute to the song "Make Some Music" which features Seeley on lead vocals. Isaac's own autistic son, Wyatt, will sing a song with Jack Black featuring Stills on guitar.
Gina's part of the duet with Khan, "Butterfly," was recorded in her sister's room. It's a song about a young child who will emerge as a butterfly in her own time. Jason Lucas, wrote and produced the song and traveled from Los Angeles to Orlando, bringing with him the full, mobile recording equipment. "We were surrounded by stuffed animals and walls painted with cartoon characters, like a little wonderland," Lucas said. "I set up the studio on a children's tea party table and sat on a tiny plastic chair
"Gina would come in and record fifteen minute sessions with me for 2 days. She would step in like a professional, put on her headphones and just do it. Gina did not need two bars of introduction, just a few words. She was very well -rehearsed, thanks to her Mom and family, who provide a very supportive, progressive, yet normal environment."
Lucas described Gina as "a very happy, warm and loving youngster, who is a joy to hang out with." He recalled that Gina "memorized the string names on my guitar having heard them named one time. Two hours later, Michelle, her mother, asked her to name the strings and with very little hesitation and no flaws, she did." "When I first heard about Gina, I knew she had to sing on "Fly: Into the World of Autism" because she flies and redefines the common perception about what a child with autism can do," Isaacs said. "She is a shooting star, as are many of our other child singers. It is a celebration of the many voices of autism to open eyes, ears and hearts to this diagnosis."
The album is scheduled to be released this fall. Updates will be available at ginachildperformer.com/ and at www.themiracleproject.org/. Other celebrity contributors to the project include Rev. Run (from MTV's Runs House and Run DMC) , Ben Vereen, Babyface, Gary Cole and several others.
Gina was first diagnosed with autism when she was two years-old; however, her parents were not sure this diagnosis was correct because they were not familiar with the symptoms. Gina was unable to speak and did not associate with other children well. She would become frustrated and angry because she could not communicate the way she wanted to. Things seemed to be getting worse and not better. The Incandela's soon realized that what they had dismissed as "behavioral quirks" were actually symptoms of autism.
Gina received treatment at UCP of Central Florida from age two through five. She now attends a private school in Kissimmee. "We believe that the early diagnosis and early intervention along with the family support were crucial to her success," Michelle added.
Now, at age seven, Gina "works hard every day to function in a world which she perceives much differently than most," Michelle said. She explained that "through music therapy, Gina's speech improved and through speech therapy, her singing improved and it has brought her full circle."
"Gina does not really know that she has autism," Michelle said. "We have tried to explain it to her, but I don't think she is yet able to see those differences between herself and the other kids. If you ask her whether or not she is different from the other kids she will say 'Yes, I sing really good.' She sees her musical ability as the trait which makes her unique and not her autism."
Autism is a neurological disorder that typically appears during the first three years of life. The illness impacts the normal development of the brain in the areas of social interaction and verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Those with autism may exhibit repeated body movements, unusual responses to other people, attachments to certain objects and have an aversion to any changes in routine activities. There is currently no cure for autism, but the illness is treatable. Donna Lorman, president of the Autism Society of Greater Orlando (http://www.asgo.org/), said that "Gina always amazes me and reminds me of the possibilities."
Donna Helsel, board member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Greater Orlando (http://www.namigo.org/), heard Gina perform at the opening of the Central Florida Behavioral Hospital. "She is fantastic," Helsel said. "She is a wonderful example that early intervention and treatment works."
Gina has performed the National Anthem more than fifty times locally and across the country. In addition to opening for the Orlando Magic, she has appeared at Shea Stadium in New York, Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas and was also a guest on the Today Show. Recently, Gina was asked to return to New York for the US Open Tennis Championship on Labor Day weekend. Topping off her busy schedule, Gina is also working on new recordings of her own that will be available in various formats.
It's difficult to know what the future holds for Gina and her family, but Michelle explained that our plans are to support Gina and her dreams. We want both our girls to ultimately do what takes them happy in life and will do whatever we can to support them in their endeavors. Gina's career choice might change but, hopefully whatever she does it will be something that she loves."
Cranes Roost Park in Altamonte Springs is hosting the 5th annual Orlando Walk Now for Autism fund raising event on November 14. For further information, visit www.walknowforautism.org/orlando.
Additional photos of Gina can be viewed at www.bvphoto.net/musicians