Speaker Helps Teens And Parents Follow Path To Success

On Thursday, September 30, at 7 pm, A Winner By Any Standard author Rob Garofalo will be at the C.H. Booth Library to share his very positive message with both parents and teens.

An award-winning teacher in Berlin, Conn., Mr Garofalo wants to help teens overcome the problems they encounter in life, responsibly addressing what he calls the twisted values portrayed in the media and popular culture. His goal is to teach youth how to succeed, first and foremost, as human beings.

His new book is a life manual that explains in no uncertain terms how to realize what is right and wrong in the social situations everyone faces. Even better, and perhaps more important, he tells teens what to do next in a way that makes it easy to deal with their emotions and get on with life in a positive, productive way. He reinforces the ideal that they possess the power to shape themselves, their future lives, and the world itself.

A past congressional scholarship recipient and teacher of the year award winner, the idea for the book came out of his near obsession to help teens make effective living more the rule than the exception. He wants teens to grow up transformed so that they can follow the path to personal happiness and independence and success.

The book covers 52 different personal growth challenges that promote a variety of invaluable life skills and high integrity behaviors, including: valuing mistakes, examining alcohol use, avoiding gossip, being a true friend, dealing with emotions, seeing school in a new light, searching out heroes, stemming the tide of violence, and other topics.

The program at the library is free and the public is invited to attend. Anyone who plans to attend should call the library at 426-4533. Refreshments will be served.