Ladue resident and lifelong St. Louisan Carolyn Losos, a founding member of the National Board of Parents as Teachers and former executive director for the Leadership Center of Greater St. Louis, is scheduled to throw out the first pitch at the Cards/Mets game on May 7.
As a lifetime member of the Parents as Teachers National Center’s board of directors, Losos will toss the ceremonial pitch as part of Parents as Teachers’ annual Day at the Ballpark event that commemorates its 40th anniversary.
About 500 friends of Parents as Teachers, including National Center staff and families will return to Busch Stadium. Special game tickets which come with a t-shirt, hot dog, and soda are being offered for $40 each with only 500 tickets available. The event was created to bring more awareness to Parents as Teachers and help build stronger bonds between its staff and the families it serves.
Through a matching sponsorship initiative, Parents as Teachers is making it possible for donors to provide families enrolled in the Show Me Strong Families (SMSF) program to attend the game free of charge. Eighty-one percent of families served by SMSF have two or more high-needs characteristics such as substance abuse, a parent with a disability, domestic violence, mental health issues, having an incarcerated parent, or living in shelters or transitional housing.
To purchase your tickets or to donate to support the effort visit https://PATDayattheBallpark.simpletix.com/
About Carolyn Losos
Before retiring, Losos was a teacher who dedicated her life to educating and training a plethora of people from a variety of industries. Throughout her career up until retirement, she helped develop more than 1,000 of the area’s top leaders who went on to support major organizations and companies throughout St. Louis. Dubbed the ageless one, she devoted time and talent to heartfelt causes and is said to have perfected the art of “servant leadership.”
As a lifetime board member, she has been a staunch advocate for Parents as Teachers since its inception in the early 1980s. For decades, she lent her leadership skills, critical instinct, and innate desire to develop and improve others to help propel Parents as Teachers to the position of one of the nation’s leading early childhood development home visiting organizations.
“Carolyn’s presence has left an indelible impression on anyone who came within an earshot of her infinite wisdom,” said Constance Gully, president, and CEO of Parents as Teachers National Center. “Her leadership skills, and the lifetime of connections she has with us have helped set us on a path for success and sustainability.”
Many other organizations have benefited from Losos’s involvement or leadership, including the boards of The Missouri Botanical Garden, Regional Arts Commission, SSM Health Care, OASIS Institute, Starkloff Disability Institute, Girl Scout Council of Greater St. Louis, Girl Scouts of the USA and the National Council for Arts and Sciences at Washington University. Losos is a 1954 Arts & Sciences graduate of Washington University.
She is the recipient of many awards and honors including the International Women’s Forum’s “Women Who Make a Difference Award,” St. Louis Forum’s Trailblazer Award, Girl Scout Council of Greater St. Louis’ “Women of Distinction Award,” and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. State Celebration Commission’s Distinguished Community Service Award.
Each year at its annual professional development conference, Parents as Teachers bestows an award named after her called the Losos Prize. It’s given to Parents as Teachers Blue Ribbon Affiliates that have developed fresh solutions to address specific needs in their community and new ways to help parents become their children’s first and best teachers. A boardroom at the Parents as Teachers National Center in Creve Coeur bears Losos’ name.
To learn more about Losos, visit https://parentsasteachers.org/our people/carolyn-losos/.