"Three Little Words" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter have arrived. Ashley will be our guest speaker at the first General Meeting on September 8, 2008 at Mease Dunedin Hospital.
Copies are available prior to the General Meeting at HQ next week on Monday and Thursday and then the next few weeks on Monday through Thursday from Becky between 9am-12:00pm for $10.
Please take time to read this before our meeting! I am sure you see a different perspective, and will have lots of questions!
Here is Ashley's brief bio and her website is http://www.rhodes-courter.com/.
Ashley Rhodes-Courter was born in North Carolina in 1985 and entered foster care in 1989. Over the next 9 years, she lived in 14 placements before being adopted at age 12 by Phil and Gay Courter of Crystal River, Florida.
Ashley graduated with honors from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. She was the recipient of Eckerd's Trustee's Scholarship, their most prestigious full-tuition award. She has won several other national and local scholarships. She completed a double major in communications and drama with a double minor in political science and psychology. She spent her January term, 2006 in South Africa working with a children's literacy project.
In the community, she has a job in marketing, and works with the Heart Gallery of Pasco & Pinellas and also does on-camera work. Ashley was the 2004 Youth Advocate of the Year for the North American Council on Adoptable Children and won the Child Welfare League of America "Kids to Kids" National Service Grand Prize. In 2004, she and her family jointly won the Angels in Adoption from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and was nominated by Congresswoman, Ginny Brown-Waite.
On June 1, 2003, the New York Times Magazine published her grand prize winning essay, "Three Little Words". She expanded her essay into a memoir (also called "Three Little Words") which was published by Simon & Schuster.
In 2007, she was one of 20 college students selected for the USA Today All-USA Academic Team. She also was one of the four GOLDEN BR!CK Award winners for outstanding advocacy by Do Something, and was named one of GLAMOUR Magazine's Top Ten College Women.
Ashley has been featured on Montel Williams, Good Morning America, $.99 Cool Ranch Doritos bags, and other national and local television shows. She is currently maintaining a full calendar of speeches and workshops all across the country. She has a passion to tell her story and share hope with other foster children and encourage adoption and permanency.
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