As an addendum to our earlier coverage of the 9th Annual National Braille Challenge, we are please to offer a photo from the event as well as a little more information.

The following info comes directly from Jim Cummings’ PR team who were kind enough to send us this photo and the following release:

Photo (Left to Right) Scott McIntyre and Jim Cummings

“American Idol” finalist Scott McIntyre and voice legend Jim Cummings attended the 2009 Braille Challenge Awards Banquet Saturday night at the Universal Hilton in Los Angeles, CA. Cummings, who served as the event’s master of ceremonies, voiced a slew of popular cartoon characters for invited guests including Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. McIntyre offered words of inspiration to children and their families who were the top finalists in this year’s Braille Challenge event.

Braille Institute of America is a non-profit organization whose mission is to eliminate barriers to a fulfilling life caused by blindness and severe sight loss.

Photo Credit: Braille Institute of America

The Braille Institute itself also posted this photo and a little more information in an article entitled Winners of the 2009 Braille Challenge Announced at Star-Studded Ceremony:

After a full day of competition on Saturday, June 20, at Braille Institute in Los Angeles, the 15 winners of the 2009 Braille Challenge® were announced at a gala Awards Ceremony at the Hilton Universal Hotel. Winners received their prizes, U.S. Savings bonds from $500 to $5,000 and a PacMate pocket PC for first place, from voiceover artist Jim Cummings, who is best known as the voices of Disney’s Tigger and Winnie the Pooh and Warner Bros.’ Taz the Tasmanian Devil. The evening culminated with an inspirational speech by special guest, “American Idol’s” Scott MacIntyre. As a blind adult who has been lauded as both a classical musician and a scholar, Scott spoke to the students about the importance of perseverance and defining their own dreams.

It sounds like it was an amazing event! If any of the attendees would like to share any comments about the day, please feel free to do so below.

(I will have you know that the first draft of this post totally said Youngstown, Onion. I’m tired.)

One of the local papers in Youngstown, Ohio did a two features on Jim Cummings on Sunday. Youngstown is his hometown, so while there is nothing all that new and earth-shattering in the articles, there are some very nice local touches and pre-fame tidbits.

If you wish to read the articles in their entirety, I have added both to the press section of the site.

• The voice of Tigger and Pooh (the interview)
• JIM CUMMINGS At a glance (a brief biography)

The writing of the articles are a little. . . I don’t want to be too harsh because it doesn’t say if it the author is a local student or something but there are a lot of typos, mistakes and other oddities that you wouldn’t normally see in a more professional piece but it is nice to see him in the news in any form. There are some really nice bits in it so if you can overlook the choppy writing, it is worth a read. 

The best part of the interview?

[Jim Cummings] recalled a shopping trip during which he picked up a Winnie the Pooh greeting card in a store, and went into character for his children. A nearby clerk heard him and squealed, “Oooh, you sound just like him!”

(Still trying to catch up from the outage last week, sorry that this news is a little old.)

On Wednesday, 24th, June 2009, Jim Cummings was a guest on The Catholics Next Door on Sirus radio.

There is a small clip of him doing station identification on the show’s homepage here.

As always, if I do managed to get any info about what the interview was about or a clip from it, I will post accordingly. If anyone managed to catch the show, please give us an overview in the comments. It would be most appreciated.

Whew! Sorry about that!

The site was down for about 5 days there but we managed to fix it and only lost a little data and a few years off my life.

I will replace the articles that were eaten later today. Thank you very much for your patience and for sticking with us!

• “Hunny” Of A Bear–Winnie the Pooh Receives Hollywood Star And Other–Tributes For 80th Anniversary http://tinyurl.com/mvelw2 #
• A friend from high school, got to meet Jim Cummings. This is so not fair I cannot even deal with it. http://www.wemakethefunny.com/?p=952 #

The Braille Institute of America held the 9th Annual Braille Challenge Competition on this past Saturday, June 20th. The awards, given for academic excellence, were presented by Jim Cummings.

For more information about the Braille Challenge, you can visit it’s page at the Braille Institute here. Read the rest of this entry »

• If you are on Facebook, you can follow the blog there at http://tinyurl.com/ksb8mp #
• RT @darkcupid: Minsc was voice acted by the same guy, Jim Cummings, who did Tigger and Winnie the Poohhttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0191906/ #