H ello, my name is Barbara Ayash, and here is a little bit about myself:
I was born and raised in the State of Colorado. I was baptized a Lutheran, attended parochial schools until I entered high school. I was a cheerleader, played basketball, was on the gymnastics team, a member of the school choir and modern interpretive dance team.
I now live near North Long Beach, California. I have mothered seven. I am a grandmother of ten and an a great grandmother of four. At 65 I don't look my age. I attribute this to the fact that a person is as young or as old as he or she thinks.
I am a lover of animals especially horses. I was a champion horsewoman in my youth, a bronco rider, a barrel racer and the only woman in my town that belonged to the Future Farmers of America. However, I never got to rope the calves. I was only allowed to tie the ribbon on their tails after the boys roped them. But I did earn awards at the county fair for my horsemanship, for raising a champion Palomino colt and 300 chickens that laid double yolked eggs.
I now own a Pekingnese dog named Happy, a Persian cat named Fritz, and a Grey cheek parakeet by the name of Barbie and my current hobbies are gardening, writing some fiction and creating children's comic books.
The majority of my time is spent doing the job I dearly love -- being the co-founder and President of the Concerned Businessmen's Association of America (CBAA) which is a tax exempt, not-for-profit charitable educational organization dedicated to helping children.
My work with CBAA has helped millions of children in American schools avoid the pitfalls of drug abuse, crime and violence through the American SET A GOOD EXAMPLE Contest, and earned me two international awards of which I am very proud.
In 1985 I received the prestigious International Association of Scientologists Religious Freedom Medal. I was the first woman to receive it. Then in 1993-94 I was named International Woman of the Year by the International Biographical Association of Cambridge England.
But these credits are not mine alone. They also belong to the millions of children who have participated in the SET A GOOD EXAMPLE Contest and helped me achieve those honors. They earned many of their own for the projects they did that were based on The Way To Happiness book, written by noted author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard. Their good works have been commended 17 times in the United States Congressional Record. Forty-four governors have proclaimed Set A Good Example Months in their honor as have hundreds of mayors in cities throughout the country.
According to a national study completed by Beckman and Associates, an independent research firm, 90% of the teachers who participated with students doing SET A GOOD EXAMPLE contest projects rated The Way To Happiness book as "Excellent," for helping children learn the difference between right and wrong and to apply common sense guidelines for living such as honesty, trust, respect, and good citizenship.
The SET A GOOD EXAMPLE Contest works this way: Students can win one of three $5000.00 grants to help improve education in their school. The competition requires that students plan, develop and complete a project that will influence their peers in a positive way....away from drugs, crime, and violence and encourage them to practice honesty, trust and competence.
You can learn more about the SET A GOOD EXAMPLE Contest and CBAA by visiting our web site at
http://www dot cbaa dot org. There is even an anti-drug comic book on the site. Take a look at the section entitled 'For Children Only.