Thanks Mom & Dad Fund® to Salute Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin
(ATLANTA - April 2, 2007) Metro Atlantans will have the opportunity to celebrate Mother’s Day in a special way when the Thanks Mom & Dad Fund® hosts the fifth annual Thanks Mom & Dad Celebration, Monday, May 14 (the day after Mother’s Day) at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta. The gala benefits the Thanks Mom & Dad Fund® which supports programs and services for older adults.
The event will salute Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin who will honor and remember her parents, Eugene Clarke and Ruth Lyons White. In addition to tributes to Mayor Franklin and her parents, the event will include dinner and a silent auction, featuring such items as all five seasons of the “Sopranos” on DVD, autographed by “Tony Soprano”; two roundtrip airline tickets from AirTran and footballs autographed by Dick Vermeil and Archie Griffin.
Mayor Franklin has earned accolades both locally and nationally for the effectiveness of her administration and her willingness to address tough challenges. She implemented one of the strongest ethics reform programs in the nation. She laid the foundation for a $3.2 billion overhaul of the city's aging water and sewer system and convinced the 2004 General Assembly to allow Atlanta to place a municipal option sales tax before the voters that overwhelmingly passed and generated money for Clean Water Atlanta. A long-time advocate for the homeless, she established a commission of city leaders to create the "Blueprint to End Homelessness in Atlanta in 10 years." The flagship project, the 24/7 Gateway Center, designed to serve 500 people a day with needed personal and health services, opened in July 2005.
In 2005, Time Magazine named her one of the top five mayors in the country. Also in 2005 she received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. In 2006, she won the Southern Institute for Business and Professional Ethics’ Ethics Advocate Award.
She is president of the Georgia Municipal Association, chair of Atlanta Development Authority, secretary of the board of the Atlanta Regional Commission and serves as chair of its Ethics Committee and secretary of the Executive Committee.
The Thanks Mom & Dad Fund® was created in 2001 by the Atlanta Regional Commission in cooperation with the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. The fund works to improve the quality of life for older adults and honor the contributions older generations make to our lives and communities. The fund gives donors a way to recognize special people, notably on important occasions such as birthdays, holidays, Mother's Day, Father's Day and Grandparents Day. Through its grants, the fund seeks to encourage innovation and increase services for older adults in Georgia, such as meals-on-wheels, adult day care and transportation services.
The annual Thanks Mom & Dad Celebration is the fund's principal fundraiser. Proceeds from this event, along with gifts from individual and corporate donors, are the main sources of funding for the fund's unrestricted gifts.
Sponsors for the gala include the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WSB-TV, Channel 2, UPS, Canterbury Press and Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Tickets for this year’s Thanks Mom & Dad Celebration are $150 each, $1500 for a table of 10. Sponsorships are still available. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 404.463.3222.
The Atlanta Regional Commission is the official planning agency for the 10-county Atlanta Region, including Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties as well as the City of Atlanta and 63 other cities. The Atlanta Regional Commission serves as a catalyst for regional progress by focusing leadership, attention and planning resources on key regional issues. As the Area Agency on Aging for the 10-county metropolitan Atlanta, ARC is charged with planning for the needs of the region’s older adults. ARC manages state and federal dollars to leverage local support and provides research, technical assistance, monitoring and compliance to the region’s local aging programs.
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