The Samuels Sinclair Dental Center of Rhode Island Hospital is the recipient of the Maxwell J. Schleifer Distinguished Service Award from Exceptional Parent magazine. The award was presented to the Center to honor its staff for their advocacy on behalf of people living with disabilities and special needs. The presentation took place at home plate on the field of McCoy Stadium on Disability Awareness Night, Friday, August 29.

Shirley Spater Freedman, DMD, MPH, director of the Samuels Sinclair Dental Center, accepted the award on behalf of the staff. Representatives from EP Global Communications, the publisher of Exceptional Parent magazine, representatives from MassMutual Financial Group, the national sponsor of the Disability Awareness Night program, and the Pawtucket Red Sox mascot, Paws, presented the award.

Spater Freedman said “We are proud to receive this award and to play a role in improving the lives of Rhode Islanders with disabilities. Our patients’ disabilities range from autism to blindness, cerebral palsy to Down syndrome, and over the years, they continue to teach us more about compassion, empathy and the role we can play in the community.”

Disability Awareness Night began in 2002 when Exceptional Parent magazine combined forces with the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees to create the first event of its kind. The goal of this community outreach program is to raise the public’s awareness about the special needs community. The event now encompasses both major and minor league baseball venues, as well as the NBA and NASCAR.

Joseph M. Valenzano, president and CEO of EP Global Communications, Inc. says, “Our goal is to help all Americans understand that we will become a stronger nation and better human beings when we learn to regard people with disabilities and special needs as people to be respected, not as problems to be confronted.”

MassMutual Financial Group and its SpecialCaresm program has been the exclusive national financial services sponsor of Disability Awareness Night since 2003. The Legacy Financial Group will be the participating agency at the event.

“Our sponsorship of this Disability Awareness Night deepens MassMutual’s commitment to supporting people with disabilities and other special needs and their families,” says Bill McQuaid, general agent of the Legacy Financial Group. Through our work with EP, Easter Seals and our specially trained and certified SpecialCaresm planners, we are trying to raise the general awareness of the unique needs of this population and provide the means for them to develop a life plan that will enable a special needs family to obtain the best quality of life possible.”

The Samuels Sinclair Dental Center of Rhode Island Hospital was founded in 1931 and is the state’s largest and oldest dental care practice for children and adults with special needs. It is one of the first clinics of its kind to provide comprehensive dental care within a general hospital.