As many of you know, the Special Olympics holds an important place in the history of the Case Foundation – Eunice Kennedy Shriver was a dear friend, and her tireless effort and dedication to helping individuals with intellectual disabilities, which led to the creation and incredible growth of the Special Olympics was an inspiration.

In fact, the Case Foundation made one of its earliest grants to the Special Olympics in 2000 to help the organization reach its goal of doubling the number of people they serve by 2005.

We continue to be inspired by the incredible efforts of the Special Olympics, and today ask for you to consider supporting the organization’s second annual day of awareness to “Spread the Word to End the Word.” The day of awareness highlights a national and international effort to get people to think about the hurtful effects of the use of the word “retard” and encourage them to pledge to stop using it. The Special Olympics has a great list of ideas of what you can to do help spread the word from leveraging social networks to encourage others to get involved, to getting involved with youth activities. We applaud Tim Shriver for his leadership on this initiative. I am pleased to pledge my own commitment to spread the word to end the word, and hope you will join this important movement.