News
Contact: Kallie Bienvenu
kbienvenu@cfmt.org
615-321-4939
August 13, 2009
The Community Foundation Hosts Best-Selling Parenting Author for Edna S. Thomas Lecture Series
Founder and CEO of The Parent Coaching Institute Gloria DeGaetano to Lead October Workshop on Parenting in a Media AgeNASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee announces the much-anticipated tenth annual Edna Thomas Lecture Series Tuesday, October 6, at 9:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., featuring Gloria DeGaetano, best-selling author, expert and founder of The Parent Coaching Institute, a nonprofit organization which works to energize, assist and inspire parents.
The series is made possible by The Community Foundation’s Edna S. Thomas Fund, established in 2000 by Thomas’ daughter, Judy Lewis, as a tribute to her mother’s outstanding parenting skills. The Fund endows the annual lecture series to provide tools for parents and educators to raise healthy children.
The free seminar, titled “Parenting Well in a Media Age: Keeping Our Kids Human,” will focus on the choices parents make for their family in a screen-saturated society. Participants can register for one or both seminars at www.cfmt.org.
DeGaetano will share new research from her latest book, Parenting Well in a Media Age, showing how mass media impacts the emerging self-identity of kids and in turn determines their behaviors, attitudes and values. She will describe the new parenting tasks fundamental to our times, with a focus on what she has termed—The Vital Five—five developmental needs that often get short-changed in a media-driven society, showing attendees how to meet those needs for their children in everyday, conscious decision-making.
“Being a parent in this ‘media age’ creates extraordinary new challenges and decisions many of us have not faced before,” said Ellen Lehman, president of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. “Through the work of the Edna Thomas Fund, we are honored to create annual learning opportunities to help parents better navigate their most important job, that of raising children.”
The lecture series offers two seminars on October 6, starting with a morning workshop, 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3900 West End Avenue, Nashville. The evening lecture is at 7:00 p.m. at the University School of Nashville, 2000 Edgehill Avenue, Nashville. Both sessions are free and open to the public. Donations can be made to the Edna S. Thomas Fund of The Community Foundation at www.cfmt.org.
A respected voice for children and parents, DeGaetano’s ideas and articles have appeared in numerous publications including McCall’s Magazine, Parenting Insights, American Baby Magazine, The Boston Globe, Committee for Children Newsletter, the American Academy of Pediatrics Newsletter, and Family Magazine. She is a sought-after favorite for keynotes and workshops at national and international conferences, where she shares her real-life experiences with wit and humor, sharing compassion and empathy with her audiences.
For more information and to register for the workshops visit www.cfmt.org, or call The Community Foundation at 615-321-4939.
About The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee oversees more than 700 charitable funds. In the past eighteen years, The Community Foundation has distributed $438 million to community programs and institutions. It is located at 3833 Cleghorn Avenue, #400, Nashville, Tennessee 37215. For more information, call 615-321-4939 or visit www.cfmt.org.
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