In 2008, I had a chat with "American Idol" finalist, Broadway star and all-around big famous sensation during his first annual Golfing For Inclusion benefit at Palm Beach Gardens' Mirasol Country Club, for what was then called the Bubel-Aiken Foundation. He was there to help raise money for the foundation's goal of providing opportunities for kids with disabilities to attend camp, but not to share his mad golf skills, because he apparently doesn't have any.
And today, at the third annual golf event to benefit what is now called the National Inclusion Project, Clay revealed that after three years and a couple of clinics with golf pro Wayne Player, his game…still has no game.
"I still don't know anything," Clay, chilling in a small room not far from the very rainy golf course where about 75 golfers were to be teeing off. "We do the clinic and I still don't know what (Player) is talking about. I just stand there and make a few jokes."
Still, Clay's willing every year to be the test subject in Player's clinics every year, if it'll inspire people to show up, play golf and contribute to the cause, which has been dear to him since his pre-Idol days as a camp counselor in Raleigh, North Carolina. There, he remembers, was a little girl – "Let's call her Jessica," he says, who signed up for camp before anyone realized she had disabilities. Upon discovering Jessica's situation, Clay remembers, the camp's director, tried to send her away, "because I think the director and the camp were not educated that it was possible. I almost quit over that. But now, people know that it's possible, easy and effective."
What The National Inclusion Project has done is create a curriculum that can be used by already-existing camps to make their facilities accessible and fun for would-be campers with disabilities. For the third year, the foundation has donated $15,000 to a Florida facility – this year's recipient is the Florida Lion's Camp in Lake Wales.
Clay says the foundation's new name makes plain what its goals are, unlike the old one, named for him and co-founder Diane Bubel, whose autistic son Clay tutored — "No one knew how to pronounce Diane's name, including our executive director. Make sure you print that! They said Bubble, Babel, Buble'. Plus, no one knew what (the foundation) did, even with the minimal name recognition. But this new name has helped us reach out to a national audience."
The event, which attracted about 75 people for golf and is expected to have about 200 for a dinner and performance by Clay this evening, was nearly turned into "Poker For Inclusion," because of the soggy weather. But the foundation's Kristy Barnes, who was a counselor with Clay back in the day, reports that most everyone stuck it out and played nine holes or so before retiring into the club to play cards, while "talking about how much fun they had."
Since the first event, Clay's life has changed somewhat – he finished a stint on Broadway in "Spamalot," came out on the cover of "People" magazine, and in the summer of 2008 had a son, Parker Foster Aiken, with friend Jaymes Foster (sister of producer David Foster). He says that parenthood has helped the cause of inclusion "resonate even more" with him than it did before.
"Before, Diane Bubel always talked about this from the perspective of a parent, and I didn't understand. But this year, me and Christy, who is also a new parent, were putting together the video for our gala, and we finally thought 'We know now what heartstrings we need to pull.' Before, we would have asked the question, 'How would you feel if you were left out, if you weren't included?' and now we're asking 'What would you do if it were your child,' because now, that's so much more powerful to us."
Still, Clay laughs, his golf game is not, nor is his interest in watching sports in general – "I don't have the patience for it," he says. "But I did watch the Vikings and the Saints play, and I was somewhat intrigued by it. If they could shorten the entire football season down to about a week, I could be into it!"
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