Clay Speaks at the North Carolina Public Schools Conference on Exceptional Children

According to a message that Rainlover of The Clayboard saw at Clayversity, Clay spoke on Monday, November 12, at the North Carolina Public Schools Conference on Exceptional Children.

Caneaer from The Clayboard also read at the Official Fan Club a comment made by someone who was at the conference. She says:

I was just reading a recap from someone there in Dear Clay at OFC and it seems his appearance was a surprise!

Jerry Aiken was speaking and apparently talked Clay into attending and speaking as well. What a surprise it must have been for those at the conference!

Demelza3000 at the Clackhouse was at this conference, and here is the report that she gives:

I was at the conference that Clay appeared at today. I must say, seeing Clay Aiken was not on my agenda. It was a shock to us all that Clay came to talk about the Bubel Aiken Foundation. But the audience of I guess a thousand or two special educators was quite appreciative. Clay spoke about the mission of the foundation and then showed a videotape on inclusion that had us in tears. The whole thing, speech and video was about 30 minutes long.

As far as the glasses/hair/clothes report: There were no glasses that I could tell. The hair was not particularly styled, a little flat. He had on jeans, a jacket and either a shirt with tie or a colorful shirt. It was a very large room and having not known the attendees, I sat woefully in the back. That's all I remember, that and my cell phone was dead so I couldn't take a picture.

Here's a little more from demelza3000 at the Clackhouse. You'll laugh at what Clay said!

At the end, Clay was trying to tell us how to find the Bubel Aiken Booth so we could purchase the Mikalah book...he stumbled around with directions and then just gave up saying, "I'm not sure how to tell you to get there, I haven't come through the front door of a building in 5 years!" He got a big laugh with that. Then he was off....out the back door.

There was an audible gasp when Clay was introduced, then heavy applause and about half of the audience gave him a standing ovation. He was very charming and funny and there were lots of laughs, then a lot of tears during the videotape. He rushed out at the end, otherwise I think he would have had a full standing ovation at the end.

The people at that conference had no clue what a treat they were in for! Its great to know that Clay's classroom continues to reach far and wide as he speaks to others about children with disabilities.