Naples, FL – The David Lawrence Foundation is pleased to announce that Christopher Kennedy Lawford, actor, New York Times Best selling author, mental health and substance abuse activist, and member of the famed Kennedy family, will be the keynote speaker at a fundraising luncheon taking place Thursday, April 29, 2010 at the Ritz-Carlton, Naples at 11:00 a.m. Mr. Lawford will also attend an exclusive VIP Patron party for sponsors the evening before the luncheon at a private residence in Naples.
Lawford will share intimate details about his deep and long descent into near-fatal drug and alcohol addiction, and his subsequent formidable path back to the sobriety he has preserved for the past twenty years. His presentation will explain the bittersweet truth about life inside America’s greatest family legacy filled with enormous privilege and burdened by gut-wrenching family tragedy. His poignant, honest portrayal of life as a Kennedy, a journey overflowing with hilarious insider anecdotes, heartbreaking accounts of his addictions to narcotics as well as to celebrity and, ultimately, the redemption he found by asserting his own independence, will be sure to move guests and Foundation supporters.
Tickets are $250 per person and $1,000 per VIP patron and table hosts are $2,500. All proceeds will benefit the mental health and substance abuse programs at the David Lawrence Center, Collier County’s only not-for-profit community mental health and substance abuse treatment center. For more information on the Christopher Kennedy Lawford Luncheon, please call the Foundation at 239-354-1416 or visit www.davidlawrencecenter.org.
About Christopher Kennedy Lawford
As the firstborn child of famed Rat Pack actor Peter Lawford and Patricia Kennedy, sister to John F. Kennedy, Christopher Kennedy Lawford grew up with presidents and movie stars as close relatives and personal friends. He lived on both coasts and experienced the high life of Hollywood and the powerful world of politics....from a front row seat.
Lawford holds a B.A. from Tufts University, a J.D. from Boston College Law School, and a Masters Certification in Clinical Psychology from Harvard Medical School, where he gained an academic appointment as a lecturer on Psychiatry. He has worked extensively in politics, government, and business as well as in Hollywood. His political career includes executive staff positions with The Democratic National Committee, The Community Action for Legal Services Agency, and in the Washington office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. In addition, he held staff positions on numerous national, state, and local political campaigns.
Lawford spent over fifteen years in the film and television industry as an actor, lawyer, executive, and producer. He began in Universal Studios’ Independent Film Acquisition Unit. He also worked in the entertainment law office of Mitchell, Silverberg, and Knupp. His acting credits include Terminator 3, Thirteen Days, The Sixth Day, Blankman, The Doors, Russia House, The World’s Fastest Indian and Slipstream. In addition, he spent three years on All My Children.
Mr. Lawford has also focused much of his life on public service in the non-profit sector, working for The Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation, The Special Olympics, and The Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University and Caron Treatment Centers. Currently, he holds positions as a Public Policy Consultant for Caron Treatment Centers and a national spokesperson for a Hepatitis C public awareness campaign and was recently appointed to the California Public Health Advisory Committee.
He is the author of Symptoms of Withdrawal: A Memoir of Snapshots and Redemption, a book illuminating the extraordinary circumstances of his life and bringing a cohesive message of survival, hope and finding one's integrity; the editor of Moments of Clarity, a book of interviews illuminating the spiritual epiphanies that occur in peoples live enabling them to move from addiction to recovery; and co-author of Healing Hepatitis C, an educational book about the epidemic written from a patient and a doctor’s perspective.
David Lawrence Foundation raises funds to support the programs and services of David Lawrence Center, a not-for-profit, community mental health center that provides affordable mental health and substance abuse services in Southwest Florida. In addition to helping children with behavioral, emotional and substance abuse challenges, the Center provides counseling and rehabilitative services to adults in crisis and individuals with persistent mental illness. David Lawrence Center has eight locations in Collier County and touches the lives of more than 17,000 clients a year. It is David Lawrence Center’s mission to restore and rebuild the lives of all of those in need. More information about David Lawrence Center can be found online at davidlawrencecenter.org.
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