Arianna Huffington Celebrates New Book at The Jefferson

A group of well known reporters and journalists gathered at The Jefferson Hotel in Washington, D.C. to celebrate Arianna Huffington’s latest book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder. Hotel owner and businesswoman Connie Milstein hosted the party along with Gail MacKinnon and Rachel Pearson. 

Huffington, best known for her news website The Huffington Post, was inspired to write the book after spending time in the hospital due to a fall caused by exhaustion and a lack of sleep.

“The motivation for writing the book was my own burnout, and then looking around and seeing how many millions are burned out. And then, asking the questions that we stop asking after college, ‘What is the good life? What is success?’ And if you think about it, we define success, in search of these two metrics of money and power, and in this town, especially power. And this is like trying to sit on a two legged stool. Sooner or later you fall off. Nothing wrong with these two metrics. It’s just that you need the third leg of the stool,” Huffington said during the party.

Since The Jefferson underwent renovations and reopened in 2009 it has hosted a number of notable events, including a dinner between President Obama and GOP senators, a book launch for Mark Shriver’s A Good Man, and a farewell party for former United States Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. 

Blue Star Families Celebrates the Month of the Military Child

This month Blue Star Families recognizes Month of the Military Child through a variety of events held around the country. As the nation’s largest chapter-based military families support organization, Blue Star Families embraces this unique time to honor and support military children.

“Our military children show tremendous resilience and have been through innumerable separations, especially during this past twelve-plus years of war,” said Kathy Roth-Douquet, CEO of Blue Star Families. “The Month of the Military Child is a great way to honor our military kids and show our appreciation for their contributions to the military community.”

Events hosted by Blue Star Family this month include letter-writing campaigns via Operation Appreciation, Books on Bases literacy events, community festivals, circus events and more! Visit Blue Star Families for a complete list.

For those military families who do not live near one of these even locations, Blue Star Families encourages parents to help their child go online and print the Military Child Certificate of Appreciation. 

Blue Star Families Receives Be a STAR Grant

Blue Star Families, the country’s largest chapter-based support organization for military families, recently received the first-ever Be a STAR (Show Tolerance and Respect) grant for its MilKidz Club program. The MilKidz Club provides all military children, regardless of rank, branch of service, or military installation, with resources, mentoring and opportunities that will empower them to become leaders in their community.

Be a STAR is an anti-bullying initiative founding in 2011 with The Creative Coalition and WWE. The initiative’s goal is to use education and awareness to encourage young people to treat others with tolerance and respect. With the grant, Blue Star Families will incorporate Be a STAR’s lessons of Courage, Responsibility, Dignity, Friendship, Advocacy, Resiliency, Empathy, Identity and Morality into its monthly programs and after-school activities.

“Blue Star Families appreciates the support of The Creative Coalition and WWE, allowing us to help even more students learn how to Be a STAR,” said Sheri Robey-Lapan, Blue Star Families’ Senior Director of Programs. “Our military children show tremendous resilience each time they enter a new school… By incorporating Be a STAR lessons in our MilKidz Club and after-school activities, more military and non-military students will better understand what their fellow students are going through.”