Last week I was privileged to attend a luncheon at Ladies Home Journalin honor of the Golden Hat Foundation, founded by actress Kate Winslet, who appears on the cover of the current issue of the magazine.

Golden Hat is a new non-profit whose mission is “to eliminate barriers for people with autism around the world, and create an environment that holds these individuals as intellectually capable.” Short term, the foundation plans to create public awareness; long term, they hope to establish innovative, assisted living campuses that will offer non-speaking autistic people education, job training and recreational activities in an environment that supports their individual strengths.

Kate Winslet is not herself the mother of an autistic child. She first became interested in autism when she was asked to narrate the documentary “A Mother’s Courage: Talking Back to Autism,” about a young nonverbal Icelandic boy named Keli. She was moved by the efforts of Keli’s mom, Margret Ericsdottir, to find a way for her son to learn to communicate. “I simply couldn’t conceive of how devastating it would be, not to be able to hear my children’s voices,” Kate said.

“Before Keli had the means to express himself,” says Margret, “we, his family, were self-proclaimed experts in predicting his wants and needs. In our own opinion, we had developed a pretty good skill in understanding his expectations. As it turns out, we hadn’t….we, his parents, who believed we knew our child the best, were unable to guess what he liked or disliked. And that breaks my heart.”

Keli had written a poem called The Golden Hat about a magical hat that spoke for a boy “with no voice,” which became the inspiration for the name of the foundation.

Inspired by Keli’s poetry, Kate had a brainstorm. She has put together a book, “The Golden Hat: Talking Back to Autism,” by asking friends to pass a hat--chosen from Kate's closet--from one to another, after they'd each taken a self-portrait wearing it, and to write something that was important to them. The book combines the journey of a boy who has found his "voice" with stunning photographs of the world's most well-known celebrities wearing "the golden hat." The list of 100 photographs includes Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Justin Timberlake, Tom Hanks, and Conan O’Brien. All proceeds from this book will benefit the Golden Hat Foundation.