Guest Post: The Good Use Of Celebrity and The Celebrity of Good

Gloria Loring is no stranger to daytime television fans or music lovers. However, she is also well-known for her work on behalf of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, serving as its Celebrity Spokesperson and appearing in public service announcements and commercials, as well as hosting telethons and fundraisers.

In her new book, Coincidence Is God’s Way of Remaining Anonymous: Reflections on Daytime Dramas and Divine Intervention, Gloria reveals that while she was starring in Days of Our Lives, she was also dealing her young son’s diabetes diagnosis and the disintegration of her marriage. The book is her “spiritual exploration of how coincidence helped her make sense of life’s challenges and uncertainties.”

It is my honor to welcome Gloria to Colloquium today!

The Good Use Of Celebrity and The Celebrity of Good

by
Gloria Loring

When I was a little girl, I wanted to either be a teacher or a singer. (I think I mostly wanted to be at the front of the room.) Life has led me to be both. As a spokesperson for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), I have played the teacher by informing people of the damage diabetes can do, and tried to inspire them to support research. My son’s diabetes led me to that role. His diabetes also led me to use my being famous as a singer and actress for good.

It began when I joined Days of Our Lives, after promising my little son to work to end his diabetes. I was inspired to create the Days of Our Lives Celebrity Cookbook. Twenty-four hours after finding a card in my dressing room titled “Expect A Miracle,” I met the benefactor who helped the cookbook raise $1 million for diabetes research. Wow. (The full story is in Chapter One of the book.)

When I first was cast on Days of Our Lives, I had two primary thoughts. One was that my little boys, Brennan and Robin, and I could now stay home instead of my singing all over the country, getting off the planes with smashed banana on my jeans. The other thought was that my being on Days of Our LIves, with its ten million viewers, I could help me do something good for JDRF and my son.

And isn’t that what so many of us want, to see our actions create positive results? The good news is that with the help of social media, any one of us can bring attention to a good cause without being a celebrity.

We may not all be public figures, but we are all teachers. It comes down to what we are teaching. When something moves us to beneficial action, we can be example of what is good.

Perhaps one day you will find yourself recognized as a philanthropic celebrity like Marisol Lizelle Salvador who helps Filipino children, or Ellen Calmus who works with migrant workers returning to Mexico, or Bill Pulte of Pulte Homes who started a non-profit to clean up abandoned houses and urban blight in Detroit.

Or it may be something closer to home, like leading your PTA to its most effective support of your child’s school, or helping an older neighbor clean up her yard. What will you become famous for?

Meet Gloria

Gloria Loring brought her performance and singing ability to Days of Our Lives, portraying wealthy heiress Liz Chandler. In doing so, she launched an acting career that has spanned movies of the week, theater, guest-starring roles on prime time, as well as hosting and serving as a spokeswoman. In total, she has appeared on more than one thousand television shows from Days of Our Lives to Beverly Hills 90210 to Murder, She Wrote to the Emmy and Academy Awards shows, as well as the Golden Globes. She has appeared on national talk shows such as Oprah, The Today Show, The View, CNN, Charlie Rose, and NBC News. She recently hosted an hour-long PBS special from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

Gloria sang on the show on an almost weekly basis, introducing “Friends and Lovers.” It soon became the most requested song in the history of NBC daytime television and her recording of it with Carl Anderson, released on Carerre Records, became the first song launched on a television network reach the number one spot on record sales charts.

On stage, Gloria has starred in Blame It On The Movies, Queen of the Soaps (Los Angeles Drama-Logue Award), and Stardust in San Francisco. She also starred in Tony Award-winner George Firth’s one-woman show, Music Minus One, and toured North America as Reno Sweeney in Cole Porter’s Anything Goes.

After her son with diagnosed with diabetes, Gloria became the Celebrity Spokesperson for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and has also appeared in commercials and public service announcements for Mini-Pharmacy and the National Disease Research Interchange.

Gloria Loring effortlessly toggles between acting, singing, and hosting. She has hosted and sung at events in the spiritual marketplace for His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Michael Beckwith and the Agape International Spiritual Center, and has shared the stage with esteemed spiritual teachers such as Dannion Brinkley, Dr. David Hawkins, Mary Manin Morrissey and Eric Pearl. She has been a contributor to tele-seminars, most recently Blessings, Bliss, and Chocolate with best-selling author Kathryn Brinkley, and “Summer Extravaganza” with author Lisa Nichols, a contributor to The Secret.

Her hosting and performance at the 2010 conference for BraveHeart, the women’s social networking community of 250,000 members, was shared on the Internet. At the conference, she premiered Rise, the new BraveHeart theme song she wrote and recorded with Ted Perlman.

Gloria received the Woman of Achievement Award from the Miss America Organization, joining a distinguished group of past recipients that includes former First Ladies Barbara Bush, Roslyn Carter, and Hillary Rodham Clinton. She is also listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who of American Women.

Connect with Gloria at her website, or on Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you, Gloria!