Authors Luncheon a record breaking success!

After a successful 20^th anniversary celebration in 2011, Abilities United Authors Luncheon followed up this year with another panel of renowned authors: Arlie Hochschild, Jon J. Muth, Ellen Sussman, and Lee Woodruff. This popular event drew a sold-out audience of over 600 book lovers from all parts of the Bay Area.  

Carolyn Johnson, co-anchor of ABC7 News emceed the event and introduced Heidi M. Feldman, M.D., PhD, President of the Board of Directors of Abilities United, who spoke about the benefits of early intervention services for children at risk of developmental delays.

Dr. Feldman was followed by Jennifer Byde Myers, co-author of "Thinking Person's Guide to Autism" who told her family's personal story about how her son benefited from Abilities United early intervention services when he was a toddler and how her family benefited from the support they received from other parents and staff.

These guest speakers led the way to the newly added "Fund a Future" auction to raise scholarship funds for early intervention services for children at risk of developmental delays.  Abilities United partnered with Alman Benefit Auctions to manage the 15 -minute auction, which raised $67,000 from dozens of event attendees!

The 4 hours long event concluded with the four-featured authors who sat on the stage in a conversational “U” arrangement.  Carolyn Johnson introduced each one and Jon J Muth opened and delighted the audience with his illustrations and tales of the inspirations behind his drawings.  Ellen Sussman followed Muth with stories of her life in France and the gift she gave her husband, which inspired her recent novel “French Lessons”. Arlie Hochschild entertained the audience with examples of how Americans outsource the activities of their lives such as dating, children’s birthday parties, and home maintenance.  Lastly, Lee Woodruff shared her personal story about her husband Bob’s brain injury and recovery.  In additional to the presentation, the authors signed their books and greeted book lovers throughout the afternoon. 

The Abilities United art exhibit and silent auction, now in it's seventh year as part of the luncheon and sponsored by Allegro Framing of Portola Valley, showcased original works of art by artists of Abilities United.  100% of the proceeds go directly to the artists who range in age from 3 years old to over 50 years old and participate in all of Abilities United services.  These 12 original works of art are also featured in the Abilities United annual report, which is designed as a 2013 calendar. 

This year’s Authors Luncheon is expected to raise a record $300,000 through ticket sales, sponsorship, book sales and donations. Over the past 21 years, the Authors Luncheon has raised over $2 million!  These funds are used to provide services to people with developmental and physical challenges through Abilities United's life long services including Children's Development, Family Support, Adult Services and Aquatic Services.  Since it's inception in 1992, the Authors Luncheon has grown from 325 attendees to today's dedicated audience of over 600.  Revenue has grown from $30,000 in the first year to this year’s expected $300,000. Stay tuned for next year’s Authors Luncheon and the “save the date” announcement.

Special thanks to our sponsors, donors, volunteers and authors for making this event so successful! You can see their names and details at http://www.abilitiesunited.org/Page.aspx?pid=338#authorslunch

Also, photos of the Authors Luncheon are posted on the Abilities United Facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/AbilitiesUnited.org

Submitted by Wendy Kuehnl, Abilities United Marketing Director

Dr. Heidi Feldman, Abilities United Board President, receives Pediatric award

All of us at Abilities United congratulate our Board President, Dr. Heidi Feldman on receiving this prestigious award.  

AAP press release

NATION'S PEDIATRICIANS RECOGNIZE LOCAL DOCTOR

NEW ORLEANS  Heidi M Feldman, MD PhD, FAAP, of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford University received the C. Anderson Aldrich Award at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference & Exhibition in New Orleans, La., October 20-23, 2012.

The annual award recognizes achievement in the field of child development. This award is named for Dr. C. Anderson Aldrich, one of the founders of the AAP, whose greatest contributions were in the modern practice of infant feeding. Dr. Aldrich and his wife Mary co-authored a book entitled Babies are Human Beings in which he urged flexible schedules for feeding, sleeping and toileting.  In 1944, Dr. Aldrich founded the Rochester Child Health Institute in Rochester, Minnesota, devoted to research on the development of infants and children and to a program of delivering childcare to an entire community.

Dr. Feldman holds the Ballinger-Swindells Endowed Professorship of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine and serves as the Medical Director of the Mary L Johnson Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Clinical Programs at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.  She was on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh for 22 years before moving to Stanford University in 2006.  Her research interests focus on language development in children with medical and neurological conditions that put language learning at risk. She is currently combining neural imaging techniques and behavioral measures to understand language, cognition, and reading outcomes of children born preterm.  She has published over 120 articles and chapters. She has demonstrated that deaf children of hearing parents who are not exposed to sign language create a manual system to communicate with others.  She has demonstrated the resilience of language after unilateral brain injury.  As part of a large team, she documented that placement of tympanostomy tubes for chronic ear infections does not improve developmental outcomes in speech, language, thinking skills or reading. 

Dr. Feldman has won awards for her teaching, recognizing her creativity in organizing courses for undergraduates and interdisciplinary professional students and her enthusiasm in educating medical students.  She was one of the editors of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Fourth Edition, the premier text in the field. 

Dr. Feldman has held several leadership roles at the national level: Past president of SDBP and subsequently co-Chair of the Membership Committee; Program Chair of the Section of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics and a member of the Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics; chair of the Sub-Board for Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics of the American Board of Pediatrics.

She is also a dedicated yoga enthusiast and yoga teacher who has offered inclusive yoga classes to children.

The AAP is an organization of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well- being of the nation’s infants, children, adolescents and young adults.

Submitted by Wendy Kuehnl, Marketing Director, Abilities United