Elana Meyers Taylor Inspired Early Childhood Investment at our 2026 Annual Luncheon
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“Winning the Olympic gold medal is easier than parenting!”
At GEEARS’ Annual Luncheon on September 17th, more than 200 sponsors, partners, and guests got that nugget of wisdom from someone who truly knows of what she speaks—keynote speaker Elana Meyers Taylor, a bobsledder who’s amassed a collection of Olympic medals while raising two little boys.
And how does Elana think we should support families doing that most difficult and critical job of raising little ones? Invest in GEEARS, just as our generous sponsors invested in our event helping us raise almost $140,000. (Please see below for our full sponsor list, including premier sponsor, The Marcus Foundation.)
“It’s my job as a parent to give [my sons] opportunities to help them reach their potential, and that’s what GEEARS does,” Elana told the packed ballroom at Zoo Atlanta. “They give kids the opportunities to grow, to learn, to strive to be their best self.”
As if we’d fed her a tailored prompt (we didn’t) Elana also called out the two-generation approach to supporting children and early education powerhouses like Easterseals and Head Start. All of these happened to star in our Luncheon programming as well:
- Easterseals North Georgia, along with Sheltering Arms and the YMCA of Metro Atlanta received our Early Childhood Advocate Award for helping to rescue 6,500 Head Start child care slots from closure during 2025’s government shutdown.
- Liz Blake, whose philanthropy supports both children and their mothers, received our Early Childhood Champion award.
- And for their work with GEEARS, promoting family-friendly workplace policies, we honored The Georgia Chamber Foundation with our Early Childhood Partner award.
These honorees are all members of GEEARS’ alliance but really, so was every luncheon attendee, whether they expressed their commitment with event sponsorship, ticket purchases, or a donation like the children’s books Scholastic provided for guests to take home.
All of these partners got our message loud and clear: If you care about driving meaningful change for Georgia’s children, the best investment you can make is in GEEARS’ policy advocacy, our early childhood research, our coalition-building within Georgia’s early childhood ecosystem, and our inimitable initiatives like PAACT: Promise All Atlanta Children Thrive and the Mayor’s Summer Reading Club.
You can still express your value in this mission even if you didn’t get to join us at our thrilling event.
We hope that we’ll see you at next year’s Luncheon!
