National Marriage Week USA (www.nationalmarriageweekUSA.org) announces a new initiative for the week leading up to Valentine’s Day 2010, and is putting forth a call to mobilize hundreds of diverse organizations to plan and prepare for awareness and activities for February 7 to 14, 2010. The goal is to elevate national attention on the need to strengthen marriage and ways to do it, and initiate new efforts to reduce the divorce rate and build a stronger marriage culture which in turn helps curtail poverty and benefits children.Worth More than Rubies Ministries (www.worthmorethanrubies.org) in collaboration with Marriage 101 (www.marriage101.us) and One Love Productions (www.oneloveproductions.info) is launching a national online marriage conference entitled The Do You Still Do Online Marriage Conference (www.doyoustilldomarriage.ning.com), according to Cheryl Lacey Donovan (www.cheryllaceydonovan.com) of Houston, Texas. The event will be held on Saturday, February 13, 2010 from 9:00am – 1:00pm CST on Worth More than Rubies Radio."The event is designed to help couples develop a marriage of purpose. The conference will include two workshops and a co-ed panel discussion where participants can ask questions of the guests directly," says Donovan, Co-Author of a new book with her husband Keith entitled Do You Still Do What Happens Happily Ever After.National Marriage Week has long been an organized celebration in the UK, Germany, Ireland, Australia, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere internationally (www.marriage-weekinternational.org) with large rallies, resolutions and celebrations in Parliaments, concerted efforts for marriage education, and more. Marriage Week was brought to the U.S. by Smart Marriages in 2002. For 2010 a new initiative is being launched by National Marriage Week USA (NMWUSA) in an effort to focus solely on February 7 to 14 with an interactive website and coordination of national efforts at www.NationalMarriageWeekUSA.org.Chuck Stetson, chairman of National Marriage Week USA says “The alarming drop in marriage rates in America combined with high divorce rates are costly to the nation—financially costly to taxpayers and individuals, and emotionally costly to children. The nation needs to pay attention.”“Marriage works,” says NMWUSA executive director Sheila Weber. “Research shows that marriage makes people happier, live longer, and build more economic security. Children with married parents perform better in school. There are proven ways to repair and restore marriages—but most folks don’t know where to go to get the help they need.”Alarming new facts are in. A new Marriage Index, released jointly by the National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting (NCAAMP) and the Institute for American Values in October 2009, reveals a huge decline in national marriage indicators. One indicator shows 78 percent of adults were married in 1970, while only 57 percent of adults were married in 2008. Another indicator shows 40 percent of all children in America are now born out of wedlock in 2008; and 72 percent of African American children are now born without married parents.Participants in the national online conference can access this event on their computer by entering http://www.blogtakradio.com/worthmorethanrubies or they can call in at 646-595-3716. The event is interactive and online listeners can send in their questions via the chat tool on BlogTalk Radio. Registration for this event will be done online at http://www.doyoustilldo.eventbrite.com. The book can be purchased by contacting Peace in the Storm PublishingInquiries about the National Online Marriage Conference, contact cheryl@cheryllaceydonovan.com, or call 832-265-4845.Inquiries about National Marriage Week USA, contact Sheila@letsstrengthenmarriage.org.# # #
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