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Hamden Hall Country Day School
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Lauren McLaughlin 1958 Inspiring Readers

Jodi Amatulli
An alumna author from the Class of 1958 is, in a word, inspiring.
The Rev. Lauren Chase Hald McLaughlin has penned three books in the last seven years, and their moving messages have changed people’s lives.
Lauren’s first book published in 2010 (on her 70th birthday!) is titled
Go to ELF! Connecting with the Eternal Life Force. For one inmate in the Pinellas County (Florida) Jail, ELF was the first book that he ever owned.
“He asked me to sign it and assured me that that no one was ever going to take it away from him,“ Lauren said.
ELF is a novel about two men from dysfunctional families. They bonded because of their commonalities and for more than 20 years, they met for breakfast on Saturday and supported each other. As they approached age 40, a series of experiences led them to an understanding that they had a “spiritual support system” of which they’d been unaware.
The positive messages in ELF helped a couple in Ohio reconcile after 30 years of a broken marriage. The reader wrote Lauren that after finishing ELF—where she saw and “felt” the characters in the book fall in love— she fell back in love with her husband. Lauren, a minister of Unity, eventually met the couple and renewed their wedding vows.
Part of Lauren’s motivation to write ELF began after she and her husband—also a minister— encountered many “wounded souls” who didn’t want any part of church.
“When John and I started our Internet or virtual ministry (Unity Now) after we retired from church ministry, we focused on serving that population—loosely referred to as the ‘un-churched.’ They are also part of the much broader group called ‘cultural creatives.’ They believe in a Higher Power, but don’t wish to express their spiritual energy in a church setting.”
Lauren and John have been married 31 years and live in Palm Harbor, Fla. John is a national speaker, trainer, and producer of the DVD series, Mind Your Own Business. Lauren has one son from her first marriage, four grandchildren, and one great-grandson.
After ELF, Lauren published two more books. Spiritual Food Just Desserts, published in 2016, is a “little cookbook” and includes a series of short essays punctuated with recipes from her mother,
grandmothers, and aunts. “I just wanted to do something to honor my foremothers,” she said.
Lauren’s third book, THE HANDBOOK OF SPIRITUAL TOOLS: Reaching Beyond the Challenge to Find the Solution, was published in 2018 and is in its second printing. “This is a collection of stories about my own life experiences during which I discovered each of the 10 tools – gratitude, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, trust, imagination, giving and receiving, intention, prayer, and affirmation.”
As Lauren looks back over her career, she reflects on the foundation of lifelong learning that she experienced at Hamden Hall.
“I was at Hamden Hall starting in kindergarten, ‘connecting class,’ and then first through 12th grade. That’s a long time to be connected to anything!” said Lauren, a Hamden Hall Lifer.
Lauren credits Headmaster E. Stanley Taylor and his wife, Margaret, for being “huge role models” when she was a little girl. She also has fond recollections of going to chapel; decorating the gym for dances; cheering for a winning football team; acting in the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas; singing in the a capella choir; and graduating in a class of only 17 people.
“It was a healthy, wholesome, intelligent, moral, and kind atmosphere that I grew up in that stretched me intellectually and culturally and socially as far as I was willing to be stretched,” Lauren said.
After her 1958 graduation, Lauren earned a degree from the Marjorie Webster Junior College in Washington, D.C. It was a career-oriented institution where Lauren focused on radio and television.
After college, Lauren landed a job in the traffic department of WNHC-TV in New Haven. From there, she went to work in public relations at KRON-TV in San Francisco. After taking a leave to have her son and raise him to school age, Lauren was hired as director of public relations at the American Red Cross Chapter in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. From there, she went to the National Red Cross Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she designed their international newspaper, The Good Neighbor. Eventually, Lauren co-owned and edited a weekly newspaper in St. Petersburg, Fla.; was a speechwriter for U.S. Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young in both his D.C. and St. Petersburg offices; and sold real estate and taught Real Estate Licensed Law at a local junior college. She was also a fundraiser and a loaned executive to the United Way. Later, she attended the Unity Institute in Kansas, Mo., and was ordained a minister.
“My career, although checkered, was fascinating,” Lauren said. “I always moved into the next most interesting area that challenged me to learn and execute new skills and draw on talents I didn’t know I had. I’ve had a really wonderful life in every realm, met fascinating people—famous and not—and I am beyond grateful for all of it.”
Lauren will not be able to attend her 60th reunion in October so sends this message to her 1968 classmates: “I am grateful to each one of you for the part you played in preparing me for a very interesting, satisfying and blessed life, and I wish you a happy, healthy, prosperous future and the opportunity to enjoy life now at a more leisurely pace.”
—Story Jodi Amatull
--Photos by Sandy Cromp, Sunshine Design Studio
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Hamden, Connecticut 06517
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Hamden Hall Country Day School, located less than two miles from Yale University, is one of the best private schools in Connecticut to enroll elementary, middle, and high school students. Our nurturing and inclusive community provides a dynamic learning environment that promotes academic excellence by understanding each child and fostering their individual growth.

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