Trish Stevens Claire Downing Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Code-At-Home Tech Toys Keep Girls Engaged, Away From Computer Screens, During COVID-19 School Closures
Are you looking for constructive ways to keep your children stimulated and engaged during the COVID-19 school shutdown? SmartGurlz founder Sharmi Albrechtsen beat out 40,000 other entrepreneurs on ABC’s Shark Tank and negotiated with guest “shark” Richard Branson, before closing a deal with Daymond John on her line of groundbreaking toys that use an award-winning robotics platform to teach basic coding skills to girls as young as 6.
“Many girls’ toys lag behind in the development of spatial skills, hands-on problem solving skills, and confidence with coding and computer science,” explains SmartGurlz founder Sharmi Albrechtsen. “These are exactly the skills that SmartGurlz aims to develop.”
The SmartGurlz line of unique, interactive, self-balancing robots and dolls are controlled with the SugarCoded™ App than can be downloaded onto an IOS or android phone or tablet that once downloaded requires no Wi-Fi, just Bluetooth.
A full, step-by-step tutorial teaches basic coding strategies so young girls can maneuver the toys around obstacle courses of their own design. With several levels of learning and chal-lenges, the toy keeps kids occupied several hours a week for 4-6 months.
The company is also offering a free weekly webinar for parents and kids affected by COVID- 19 that includes getting started, tips and tricks, and weekly home assignments.
Girls playing with SmartGurlz products learn three key concepts:
Spatial Reasoning. Girls learn how to direct/orient their robots in new environments and in-terpret maps.
Computer Programming. Girls learn to program their robots using our kid-friendly coding App called SugarCodedTM.
Storytelling & Problem Solving. Girls learn to tell stories and solve missions via coding.
The SmartGurlz product line also includes an e-book series available through the App that focuses on the everyday adventures of four talented young women studying at the fictional New York Institute of Technology — N.I.T.
We’re all adjusting to a new normal. You can use this extra time at home to inspire the female tech leaders of tomorrow with toys that integrate the power of play with the power of technology.
SmartGurlz CEO Sharmi Albrechtsen is a robotics aficionado, educator, author and mom with a passion for closing the diversity gap in technology.
In 2015, Sharmi started SmartGurlz after becoming frustrated with the lack of STEM toys available for her daughter. The SmartGurlz flagship product, Siggy, was the first robotics product designed specifically for girls. More than 30,000 girls have been educated with SmartGurlz. SmartGurlz partners include BlackGirlsCode, Girl Scouts of America and Morrison Mentors.
SmartGurlz recently expanded its product line to include Smart Buddies (a joint-venture with Pitsco Education), which features a diverse set of characters suitable for both girls and boys, targeted towards schools.
Sharmi was recently given AdWeek’s Disruptor Award in Championing Gender Diversity in Advertising and Tech. She has also been named Women Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 by the Asian Chamber of Commerce as well as named a Morgan Stanley Multi-Cultural Innovation Lab fellow. Sharmi has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, Financial Times, Fox Business News, Fox and Friends and CNN. She is also a featured TEDx speaker.
Trish Stevens Claire Downing Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Code-At-Home Tech Toys Keep Girls Engaged, Away From Computer Screens, During COVID-19 School Closures
Are you looking for constructive ways to keep your children stimulated and engaged during the COVID-19 school shutdown? The line of groundbreaking toys from SmartGurlz Inc. uses an award-winning robotics platform to teach basic coding skills to girls as young as 6.
“Many girls’ toys lag behind in the development of spatial skills, hands-on problem solving skills, and confidence with coding and computer science,” explains SmartGurlz founder Sharmi Albrechtsen. “These are exactly the skills that SmartGurlz aims to develop.”
The SmartGurlz line of unique, interactive, self-balancing robots and dolls are controlled with the SugarCoded™ App than can be downloaded onto an IOS or android phone or tablet that once downloaded requires no Wi-Fi, just Bluetooth.
A full, step-by-step tutorial teaches basic coding strategies so young girls can maneuver the toys around obstacle courses of their own design. With several levels of learning and chal-lenges, the toy keeps kids occupied several hours a week for 4-6 months.
The company is also offering a free weekly webinar for parents and kids affected by COVID- 19 that includes getting started, tips and tricks, and weekly home assignments.
Girls playing with SmartGurlz products learn three key concepts:
Spatial Reasoning. Girls learn how to direct/orient their robots in new environments and in-terpret maps.
Computer Programming. Girls learn to program their robots using our kid-friendly coding App called SugarCodedTM.
Storytelling & Problem Solving. Girls learn to tell stories and solve missions via coding.
The SmartGurlz product line also includes an e-book series available through the App that focuses on the everyday adventures of four talented young women studying at the fictional New York Institute of Technology — N.I.T.
We’re all adjusting to a new normal. You can use this extra time at home to inspire the female tech leaders of tomorrow with toys that integrate the power of play with the power of technology.
SmartGurlz CEO Sharmi Albrechtsen is a robotics aficionado, educator, author and mom with a passion for closing the diversity gap in technology.
In 2015, Sharmi started SmartGurlz after becoming frustrated with the lack of STEM toys available for her daughter. The SmartGurlz flagship product, Siggy, was the first robotics product designed specifically for girls. More than 30,000 girls have been educated with SmartGurlz. SmartGurlz partners include BlackGirlsCode, Girl Scouts of America and Morrison Mentors.
SmartGurlz recently expanded its product line to include Smart Buddies (a joint-venture with Pitsco Education), which features a diverse set of characters suitable for both girls and boys, targeted towards schools.
Sharmi was recently given AdWeek’s Disruptor Award in Championing Gender Diversity in Advertising and Tech. She has also been named Women Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 by the Asian Chamber of Commerce as well as named a Morgan Stanley Multi-Cultural Innovation Lab fellow. Sharmi has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, Financial Times, Fox Business News, Fox and Friends and CNN. She is also a featured TEDx speaker.
Ashley Samson Trish Stevens Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 Phone: (760) 213-8005 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Angel Faces® — You Will Never Forget Their Courageous Stories
We live in a society of selfies and status postings; how you look can dramatically affect your self-esteem more than ever before. But add to that being mauled by a raccoon, or left for dead in a horrific house fire, and it can be a living hell. The physical and emotional scars can be unbearable when you are faced with the cruelty of the world. But there’s hope…
Burn survivor Lesia Cartelli is sharing her experience and helping girls navigate the permanent disfigurement left from traumatic injuries. The stares, unwanted questions and rejection are the reality this special group of survivors deals with on a daily basis.
Lesia knows this is true because she lived through it herself. Her desire to heal from a natural gas explosion at age nine that left her seriously burned over 50% of her face and body, encouraged her to create Angel Faces® for girls and women who suffer disfigurements from traumatic injuries. This year, two retreats will be held concurrently in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, on June 16 – 23, 2019.
Over thirty adolescent and young women (ages 13-26) with disfiguring traumas will come together on a private compound on Lake Winnipesaukee to heal. They come from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma Texas, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada, and their stories will tug at the hearts of your audience.
During the multi-day retreats, survivors hear first-hand from Cartelli about her injuries and methods she used to recover. Through role-playing, the girls learn strategies on how to handle staring, teasing and intrusive questions, and during daily yoga, art therapy, lake play and intensive sessions, the participants begin to let their social armor down. The truth of the effect of their trauma is exposed so they can begin to heal. Licensed psychologists and clinical cosmetic professionals are also on hand to lead groups.
“Our retreats are only the first component to healing,” Cartelli explains. “Seeing our participants realize they are not the ‘burned or disfigured girl;’ they are a daughter, sister, a good soccer player, etc., first. Their trauma is an experience (a reservoir within themselves they can now access for courage), but it’s not who they are. I hear from their families or medical centers that referred them that after they return home with the tools they learned at the retreat, they are much more confident and self-assured in the real world—ending their social death. Now that gets me excited!”
Her own experiences on the long road to healing inspired Lesia to write a book as a way of helping others in their journey. Heart of Fire demonstrates how to discover blessings and gifts within any challenge, and the importance of opening our hearts to deeply heal what blocks our life’s pathway. In her book, Lesia also teaches the power of embracing our fears—something she did herself at age thirty-three when she faced her fear of fire and suited up in full firefighting gear to enter a burning building known as a “control burn.” A beautiful side note to the story is that after she conquered her fear, she married the fire captain who actually led her into the fire.
Angel Faces®, founded in 2003, is a non-profit organization headquartered in Encinitas, CA, whose mission is to provide healing retreats and ongoing support for adolescent girls and young women with severe and permanent disfigurement from burn/trauma injuries so they may achieve their optimum potential and develop meaningful relationships for themselves, their families, and their communities.
For more information, please visit the Angel Faces website at www.angelfaces.com.
EXTRA! EXTRA! Read All About It!
Whahooo! Another one of our authors hit the NY Times bestsellers list! (01/22/17)
Yay! We are so happy for you, William Forstchen! We couldn’t be more excited!
The Final Day by New York Times best-selling author William R. Forstchen gives a chilling glimpse into an America ripped apart by both an EMP attack and a government hell bent on surrendering parts of the nation to foreign countries.
With our nation still at odds over the result of the presidential election, military historian Bill Forstchen offers something for both sides of the political aisle in a riveting plot that has citizens united in an attempt to preserve a beloved America. While The Final Day is third in the riveting John Matherson series, the first has already been optioned for a movie by Warner Brothers.
Bill Forstchen makes a dynamic guest. Please read the following press release and let me know if I may schedule an interview with him, or forward a copy of the book for a review from you. If you’d like to run this story, I’d be happy to send you .jpgs of the author and the book cover. Thank you.
Trish Stevens
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
281.333.3507 – Main
281.324.2180 – Office
www.ascotmedia.com
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Final Day: When Love Of Country Becomes The Driving Force That Unites All Citizens Against Tyranny
“Like its two predecessors in the Matherson series, this new novel entertainingly blends folksy and sophisticated, small-town nostalgia and sharp futurism…a thoughtfully rendered, richly detailed investigation into the ‘What if.'”
—Kirkus Reviews, on The Final Day
Black Mountain, NC – Fans of John Matherson and his fierce brand of patriotism were thrilled when The Final Day, third in the series by New York Times bestselling author William R. Forstchen, was recently released by Forge Books.
Months before publication, Forstchen’s One Second After was cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read. Film rights to that novel have already been optioned by Warner Bros. The riveting story of our nation’s struggle to rebuild itself after an electromagnetic pulse plunges the country into darkness, starvation, and death was followed closely by the acclaimed One Year After, continuing the Matherson saga.
The Final Day picks up after John Matherson and his community defeat the designs of the alleged federal government. Now they have returned their attention to restoring the technologies and social order existing prior to the EMP attack. When the government announces that it is ceding large portions of the country to China and Mexico, General Bob Scales is sent to confront Matheson. The Constitution is no longer in effect, and what’s left of the U.S. Army has been deployed to suppress rebellion in the remaining states.
General Scales is John’s former commanding officer and closest friend from prewar days. Where do his loyalties fall? Might he be the crucial turning point in the quest for an America that is again united? When news breaks that members of the federal government knew an EMP attack was coming long before it hit, the government might get exactly what it fears: revolution.
William R. Forstchen is the New York Times bestselling author of One Second After. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Purdue University, with specializations in military history and the history of technology. Forstchen is currently a faculty fellow and professor of history at Montreat College, near Asheville, North Carolina.
For more information, please visit http://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765376732
The Final Day
Forge Books
Available at fine booksellers and online outlets
ISBN: 9780765376732
Ebook: 978-0-7653-7673-2
January 2017
###
TIP SHEET
Publishers Weekly, on One Second After: “An entertaining apocalyptic thriller.”
Stephen Coonts, New York Times bestselling author, on One Second After:
“Forstchen is the prophet of a new Dark Age. The wise will listen.”
Possible interview questions:
• The frightening specifics about EMP
• An EMP attack: merely a sci-fi story or a reality?
• The societal impact of an EMP attack
• Hour-by-hour, day-by-day, month-by-month details on the effect an EMP attack would have on a community
• What, if anything, can be done to protect ourselves and our country against an EMP attack
• Why Dr. Forstchen decided to write the John Matherson series
• Speaker Newt Gingrich’s influence on One Second After
• The research Dr. Forstchen did to write the John Matherson series, and why he found what he discovered so disturbing
• Why he decided to make One Second After so personal by setting it in his hometown and using characters, including a daughter, based on people he knows
• Why he has been selected to submit a breakdown on the impact of an EMP attack to an agency within the Pentagon
• Will Dr. Forstchen’s research be used to change Congressional policy and other lawmakers?
• How does this affect our national security? Is our government preparing for such a threat? If not, why?
• What American history has to do with the technological threats of today
• Discuss the current political environment and how our president-elect should be preparing to lead our national security
• Climate change (both sides of discussion)
• Anything related to survivalists and preppers
• Why this series is such a huge success; the “making of” (his background and what inspired him to write this)
Information about Ascot Media Group, Inc. and Ascot Advertising
Ascot Media Group is a Public Relations (PR) Firm based in Friendswood, Texas. Our PR Group specializes in custom and basic PR Campaigns for first time authors to NY Times bestsellers. Our publicists are aggressive go-getters and know how to pitch your book to the nationals! We have been voted #1 for Book PR numerous times, and have had the privilege of helping many authors hit the NY Times bestsellers list. See our testimonials at: http://www.ascotmedia.com/testimonials.html
Ascot Advertising, (a division of Ascot Media Group, Inc.) specializes in all of your advertising needs: TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, Internet, social media, social networking, search engine optimization (SEO), Internet advertising campaigns, etc. We are a full service agency and can cover all of your marketing needs. Visit us at: http://www.ascotadvertising.com/
If you are looking for low cost public relations and/or advertising, or simply just want to see yourself on television, we are the PR and Advertising Gurus of the century. Call us at 1-800-854-1134 Today!
![The Final Day: A Novel (A John Matherson Novel) by [Forstchen, William R.]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/512qbatkZwL.jpg)
