Local Child Receives Scholarship for a Free Anti-Stuttering Device
All Three Winners Have Been Patients of Wolfson Children's Hospital

Jacksonville, Florida, June 24, 2009 -- Anfernee McGahee, 13, of Jacksonville is this year's recipient of the Sean Anderson Scholarship SpeechEasy device in the state of Florida.

This is the third consecutive year that a child served by Wolfson Children’s Rehabilitation has received the scholarship for Florida.

Anfernee was fitted for his new device on June 25, at the Wolfson Rehab Clinic within the Baptist Health Center in Mandarin. Scholarship provider Andy Anderson plans to attend.

"The SpeechEasy device will allow this young man to share his many thoughts and ideas that up until this point he has been unable to express," says Judy Hammer-Knisely, speech-language pathologist and audiologist at Wolfson Children's Rehab.

Launched in 2004, the Sean Anderson Memorial Scholarship Program provides free devices and therapy to Florida children who stutter. The scholarship is named in memory of 10-year-old Sean Anderson of Ocoee, Florida, who received the SpeechEasy device nine months before his untimely death in February 2004. With the help of SpeechEasy, Sean was able to speak fluently for the first time in his life, prompting his parents, Andy Anderson and Martha Lopez-Anderson, to help launch the annual scholarship program in his memory.

The scholarship program selects one Florida child each year to receive a free SpeechEasy device. The recipient is selected based on eligibility criteria that include financial hardship and potential for life-changing benefits such as social and academic/career advancement.

For more information on the Sean Anderson Memorial Scholarship Program, please call (877) 4-FLUENCY (877-435-8362).