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.

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.

For more information about the Braille Challenge, you can visit it’s page at the Braille Institute here.

Here is the original press release for this event:

Putting Their Braille Skills to the Test: Nation’s Top Blind Students Compete in Unique Academic Competition

The top blind and visually impaired students from across the U.S. and Canada meet in Los Angeles to compete in the 9th Annual Braille Challenge Competition.

LOS ANGELES, CA UNITED STATES

LOS ANGELES, June 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On Saturday, June 20, the top blind students from across the United States and Canada put their knowledge of the braille code to the test in the only national academic competition for blind students in the country — The National Braille Challenge(R).

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090620/DC35722 )

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090618/BILOGO )

Sponsored by Braille Institute of America(R), the competition serves to encourage blind children of all ages to fine-tune their braille skills, which are essential to their success in the sighted world. The 9th Annual National Braille Challenge(R) took place on Saturday, June 20, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Braille Institute’s headquarters, located at 741 North Vermont Avenue, in Los Angeles. The participants, ages 6 to 19, competed in challenging categories that required them to transcribe, type and read braille using a device called a Perkins Brailler. Each category was designed to test their braille skills in several areas–reading comprehension, braille spelling, chart and graph reading, proofreading and braille speed and accuracy–all of which they need to master in order to keep up with their sighted peers.

“We know that employment numbers for blind people are significantly lower than those of sighted people in the same age group,” said Nancy Niebrugge, director of the Braille Challenge(R). “But 90 percent of blind people who are gainfully employed are braille readers, and that’s very telling. It’s essential that blind children learn to read braille at an early age.”

This year’s competition featured a diverse group of high achievers — from athletes to musicians to junior activists. Most were born blind, others lost their sight due to cancer or viral infections, but they all share a tenacity that drives them to succeed in spite of their disability. They are the top 60, chosen from among more than 650 students throughout the country during a round of preliminary testing. Following the competition an awards ceremony will be held at the Universal Hilton Hotel, from 6 to 9 p.m. The first- through third-place winners in each age group will receive a savings bond, ranging in value from $500 for the youngest group to $5,000 for the oldest. Legendary voice-over actor Jim Cummings, who has lent his voice to characters such as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, will present the awards. In addition to these prizes, Freedom Scientific has donated the latest in adaptive equipment for the winners — a pocket PC with a braille display called a PacMate, valued at nearly $4000. KNBC4-TV will also sponsor the Braille Superstar Award for Excellence in Reading Comprehension. Although the stakes are high, The National Braille Challenge(R) serves to bridge the gap between a unique group of students from across the country.

“The great thing about The Braille Challenge(R), is that it gives us the opportunity to celebrate braille literacy in a unique way,” said Niebrugge. Most of the participants are the only blind students in their school. They go through their entire lives being the exception. This competition gives them the opportunity to build camaraderie among kids who have shared similar life experiences.”

If you would like additional information on the National Braille Challenge(R), please contact Courtney Goines, director of Marketing and PR, at (323) 663-1111, Ext. 3176. The Braille Challenge(R) Finals Competition was made possible in part through the generosity of Freedom Scientific, Walter Lantz Foundation, dot.dat.inc, Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg, and Dot and Rick Nelson.

SOURCE Braille Institute of America

For more information about the event, however, please visit this great article from MovieVine.

For pictures of everyone else at the star studded event, see here. (You will, like me, find yourself outraged at every random scrub that somehow got their picture taken in place of JC who is actually IN the movie.)

If anyone was at this event and has pictures that they would like to share, please email us!! We would greatly appreciate it.

From Two Thousand Words:

The Day Job Finally Pays Off
I was my eldest son’s hero on Friday. I got him a personal message from Darkwing Duck.

We hired a voice talent for a commercial and, lucky me, it was the voice of Darkwing Duck, Jim Cummings. The guy is an amazing voice and was very gracious when I asked him to record the message. He went all out for it too. He also gave us a bit of Don Carnage and Winnie the Pooh.

Very cool guy. But as I said, I was the hero.

Jim Cummings being low profile and rather hard to run into, this made me think about brushes with fame in general. I’m not interested in that time that you shared an elevator with someone from The Real World or saw them shooting a scene for The Sopranos, I am interested in stories of meeting one of those celebrities that you are a huge fan of or are otherwise totally obsessed with. My family often mocks me that I could probably chat, unfazed, with George Clooney but would be a total mess if I ran into Jim Cummings, who no one else would probably recognize.

Have you ever met one of your “grail” celebrities? Were you suave or did you totally spaz out?

To get the ball rolling, I will share my own sad and pathetic story after the fold.

I used to work in entertainment so I have met, socialized with and otherwise interacted with many celebrities. I am professional, charming and have inner poise. But there are  a few entertainers who, though no one else may even have heard of them, I find myself a giddy mess when interacting with.

Sadly, I have never met Jim Cummings but I think I have a comparable story. I am a huge Muppet fan. Seriously. Let me put it this way. This article is funny to me only because I could have written it in all seriousness. So meeting one of the Muppeteers in person is like a religious experience for me. Ok, I am kidding, but I do have a hard time keeping my cool when I run into one unawares.

When I met Steve Whitmire (aka Kermit and Rizzo), I went to a place specifically to meet him so my wits were all perfectly about me and I was witty and cool and he remembered my name when I saw him later and everything was good. When I met Kevin Clash, however, (you know him best as Elmo) I was completely unprepared and definitely made a fool of myself.

Once upon a time ago, I used to work for Sesame Street in the administrative offices. I suppose I should have been expecting to run into a Muppeteer at anytime but you know how it is when you are in work mode and I quite honestly wasn’t, esp since the show is filmed in a different office. One day, when I hadn’t been working there very long, it was late and mostly everyone had gone home but I had to finish up a project and was just making a final trip back to my desk down the hallway when I saw someone walking towards me. Suddenly every photo of Kevin Clash with Elmo held aloft came back to me and I knew instantly who he was. I had one of those internal squealing moments though I said nothing. Though I later met mostly all the cast of Sesame Street, this was my first encounter with a Muppet person ever and it was pretty epic for me.

I would assume that Kevin Clash doesn’t get a lot of people shrieking his name in he streets as most people have no idea what he looks like so I am willing to bet he wasn’t expecting strange behavior or even that I knew who he was. Kevin smiled at me and said hello in a polite, passing each other in the hallway kind of way. I would like to think that I smiled back but I am not convinced that I did. Instead I just let out a small and potentially unhinged laugh and then walked purposefully into the wall at full tilt. Looking back, I suspect I thought I was at the turn off for my desk while I was actually far away from it. From his perspective, I just laughed at him, turned and walked into a wall.

In case you were wondering, there is no graceful way to pull off walking into a wall and Kevin looked back at me with some concern as he passed but said nothing as, at this point, I think he just assumed I was crazy. Rightfully so, you might say.

Luckily, I ran into Kevin many more times and was eventually able to make small talk with him like a normal, hinged person.

Ok, I went first. Now what are your stories? I know you are out there, people, I can see my feed count.

Tags: jim cummings, steve whitmire, kevin clash, muppets, muppeteer, celebrity sighting, elmo