Amy Wright Amy Wright is an American advocate for disabled people who was named 2017

CNN Hero of the Year ''CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute'' is a television special created by CNN to honor individuals who make extraordinary contributions to humanitarian aid and make a difference in their communities. The program was started in 2007. Since 2016, the ...

. Wright employs forty people with physical and intellectual disabilities at her coffee shop, Bitty and Beau's in

Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is t ...

. She opened the shop in January 2016 after learning that a high percentage of disabled people were unemployed. She was born in Houston, Texas on September 21, 1975. As the mother of two children with

Down syndrome Down syndrome or Down's syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. It is usually associated with physical growth delays, mild to moderate intellectual d ...

, she wanted to create a business where people like her son and daughter could "work and shine." Wright plans to open a second location in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

. The CNN Hero of the Year award comes with a cash prize of $100,000. Actress

Diane Lane Diane Colleen Lane (born January 22, 1965) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at age 14 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film '' A Little Romance''. The two films that could have catapulted her to st ...

presented Wright with the award on December 17, 2017, at the 11th annual ceremony in New York. In her acceptance speech, Wright addressed her two youngest children directly, saying, "I would not change you for the world, but I will change the world for you." In 2013, Wright wrote a song called "It Starts with a Voice" to promote inclusion and acceptance of intellectually disabled people. Her husband, Ben Wright, also ran a company that employed people with disabilities; it was called "Ready, Willing, and Able" and was featured on

WWAY WWAY (channel 3) is a television station in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with ABC, CBS, and The CW Plus. Owned by Morris Multimedia, the station has studios on Magnolia Village Way in Leland, and its transmitter is l ...

in 2015. Wright's two older children have also been involved in disability advocacy.

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External links

* Living people Activists from North Carolina American disability rights activists People from Wilmington, North Carolina People from Durham, North Carolina Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women {{US-activist-stub