PRESS RELEASES
Meet a Scientologist
UNITED STATES •
The video interview of Lisa Cummins, released October 22, is the latest “Meet a Scientologist” video on www.scientology.org.
Growing up, Lisa Cummins had her eye on a very important career—being a mother.
“I decided very young I was going to have four kids and a boy first,” she says. “That’s what I have, and they’re best friends.”
BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA •
In the “Meet a Scientologist” video published on www.scientology.org on October 18, 2012, Sandra Poveda of Bogotá, Colombia, tells why she’s almost always smiling.
Dentist Sandra Poveda has a philosophy of life that drives her work. From the time she entered Universidad del Bosque at age 16, she knew what she really wanted to do was to make people smile.
BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA •
The video interview of Bogotá comedian Yermain Manrique, released September 25, is the latest “Meet a Scientologist” video on www.scientology.org and the YouTube Scientology video channel.
Yermain Manrique is a fun-loving guy who likes nothing more than to make people laugh.
“Being a comedian is wonderful,” he says. “You are making people feel good, so you’re helping them all the time.”
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA •
Scientologist Kaye Champagne, a driving force in the Scientology community.
Known for her guts, her compassion and her ability to inspire others, Kaye Champagne is a driving force in the Scientology community, a key player in opening dozens of Ideal Scientology Churches in the past several years. She is also happily married, a proud mother, and a successful businesswoman who travels the world doing exactly what she loves to do.
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA •
Yulia Gould spans the landscape of arts, professions and interests. A Clearwater, Florida-based graphic artist, professional interpreter, public relations officer and events coordinator, she is also a certified scuba diver who loves skiing, skydiving and traveling the world. And although raised in the Soviet Union where the only “religion” was atheism, she has been a Scientologist since she was 14.
SWITZERLAND •
Scientologist Barbara Schneider is a model, TV personality, paramedic, Scientology counselor and mother of four who didn’t anticipate how well things would turn out 18 years ago when things went wrong. Born and working as a paramedic in Lugano, Switzerland, in the early 1990s a failed relationship left her desperate to get away. “I went to a travel agent and told him I needed a change,” she says. “I wanted to be someplace far away and on the sea.”
MAYWOOD, ILLINOIS •
Former NBA center and member of the U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball Team of 1972, Jim Brewer reflects on competing in the Munich Games and the direction his life has taken since then.
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS •
On the 10th anniversary of the completion of the Ground Zero cleanup operation, Scientologist Caralyn Percy remembers 9/11/01.
Scientologist Caralyn Percy’s rendition of “Everyday Heroes” by Geoff Levin and Harriet Schock is a tribute to rescue and recovery workers of Ground Zero, New York. If it resonates with a compassion born of experience, it’s because Percy was there.
WASHINGTON D.C. •
The empowerment of knowing how to know.
Scientologist Patricia Gore is a “first” lady.
She was the first in her family to finish college and receive a master’s degree, first to move away from home, first to work eight years for the Congress of the United States—during the Carter and Reagan administrations, and the first Black ever to have achieved the State of Clear on African soil.
TAMPA, FLORIDA •
Scientologist Paola Martinez, working to make human rights a fact.
Scientologist Paola Martinez, Human Rights Coordinator of the Church of Scientology Tampa, hosted the second annual Colors of the World Fair Trade Fashion Show for Human Rights June 9—one of the many programs she participates in to raise awareness on human right issues and bring an end to abuse in Tampa, Florida, and around the world.
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA •
Scientologist Sherry Van Hootegem says Scientology gives her the tools to gets things done.
Sherry Van Hootegem isn’t particularly looking for trouble—but if trouble comes her way, she is never one to turn her back and pretend it isn’t there. And when it came to the North Greenwood neighborhood of Clearwater, Florida, trouble had been brewing for quite some time.
“I own some property in the community and when I found there were drugs being sold right on the street it made me mad,” she says.
WASHINGTON D.C. •
Scientologist Niko Papaheraklis is the Director of Youth for Human Rights, Washington D.C. chapter, and has traveled around the world to promote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Dividing his time between work, volunteering and Scientology, in Panama, Washington, D.C., and Clearwater, Florida, Niko Papaheraklis is a focused and fun-loving 26-year-old ball of energy.
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA •
Scientologist and artist Gracia Bennish, creating a better world.
In a unique meld of art and activism, Gracia Bennish leaves her mark in unexpected places.
A true citizen of the world, Bennish, who lives with husband Garry in Clearwater, Florida, was born and raised in Detroit, has lived in the United States, Australia, Europe and Mexico, and has worked or volunteered in Haiti, Baghdad, Myanmar, Africa, Thailand, Cuba and Colombia.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA •
Scientologist Alf Garbutt was named Chiropractor of the Year in 2010 by the American Chiropractic Association Rehabilitation Council. He also has won a total of 18 martial arts world championships to date and in 2011 won a record-breaking seven gold medals in a single world championship competition.
Discipline is one of his secrets, and using that discipline to learn and do.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA •
When Zahid Qureshi was introduced to Scientology, it made perfect sense to him. It appealed to his practical nature while satisfying his thirst for the spiritual.
Born and raised in Pakistan, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering, Qureshi came to America in 1970 to do postgraduate work at MIT. But by 1986, a failed marriage and a dead-end job had robbed life of the promise it once held for him.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA •
Alison Osborn considers herself truly lucky, with an ideal marriage and a career she loves.
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA •
Scientologist Julieta Santagostino is director of the Florida chapter of the Foundation for a Drug-Free World.
Fashion designer Julieta Santagostino, 28, is the driving force behind the Florida chapter of Foundation for a Drug-Free World. Her profile is one of more than 200 “Meet a Scientologist” videos on the Scientology website at www.scientology.org.
BUFFALO, NEW YORK •
Among the most striking qualities of Scientologist Patrick Clouden are his friendliness, energy, and intention—traits that explain, at least in part, his success in sales, as a motivational speaker and an entrepreneur. But Clouden describes the inauspicious beginnings of his career and the role Scientology played in helping him accomplish his goals.
“I had just graduated from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, in 1975 and I was ready to take on the world. But no one seemed interested,” he says. “I couldn’t get a job.”
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA •
Possessed of an inquisitive nature, attention to technical detail, and the will to carry through despite obstacles, Scientologist Leslie Hull has succeeded in an unusual field. She runs sales reps in countries around the world as vice president for sales and marketing in an engineering company that produces polyurethane components for heavy-duty trucks, trailers and buses.
PEORIA, ILLINOIS •
When George Seidler first read Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health in July 1950, the book was already breaking records. Published two months earlier, it rocketed to the New York Times bestseller list, where it stayed for 100 weeks.