Mayor Robert Zimmerman (middle) has been a friend of Anna Baldwin’s family since they were neighbors raising their children together. Anna Baldwin (second from left) – who has had Tourette’s since she was a child – have received the township proclamaton for eight years.
Mayor Robert Zimmerman again presented local resident Anna Baldwin and her family with a township proclamation on June 1 that recognizes the 4th of the month as Tourette Syndrome Awareness Day in Mantua.
The proclamation was first announced on the township’s Facebook page. Baldwin – who was diagnosed with Tourette’s in sixth grade – was cited for raising awareness of the syndrome by educating others and sharing her own experience.
“Over the years, we’ve worked with schools, hospitals and the New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome (NJCTS),” she said. “I mainly talk at schools, and it’s been really good for me.
“My tics were really severe for a long time,” she recalled. “There were times I had to stay home from school. I was ticcing so much that I couldn’t keep up with the pace. It had a huge impact on my mental health and my friendships. At this point it doesn’t impact me as much.”
Baldwin credits both the Mantua school district and the NJCTS for the opportunities in life she has now despite Tourette’s.
“(Without) these two groups,” she noted, “I don’t know where I would be now. The school system was phenomenal in their support, and so was the New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome.”
Zimmerman has been friends with Baldwin’s parents, Scott and Carolyn, for more than 30 years, according to the mayor, and the two families were also neighbors. Zimmerman has presented the family with the Tourette Syndrome Awareness Day proclamation for eight years, according to Baldwin.
“We raised our families together in the same Mantua neighborhood,” the mayor recalled of the Baldwins. “The township committee and I have proudly supported their quest to educate the community about Tourette syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder that has directly impacted their family and specifically their children.
“Anna, their daughter, has seemingly moved to the forefront of their efforts and is continuing the great work,” Zimmerman added. “I couldn’t be prouder of her as a teacher and advocate of the disorder.”
Baldwin is now a sixth grade teacher instructing children who are about the same age as she was when she was diagnosed. Baldwin chose teaching to help kids others avoid the struggles she had growing up with Tourette’s.
“I want kids to be comfortable for who they are,” she said, “and for them to be proud of who they are.”
