Gil Ahrens reaches out to suffering in Haiti

Author Gil Ahrens, who shares his personal story of loss and adversity in the new book Shattered, Shaken and Stirred, is reaching out to the thousands that are suffering in Haiti. In response to the horrific earthquake in Haiti, Gil has created a special promotion to raise funds for earthquake relief. Enter the Promo Code GSAHAITI upon checkout at Amazon and receive 10% off any version of Shattered, Shaken and Stirred. Gil will donate 25% of book sales to Food for the Hungry www.fh.org, which is providing food and relief to Haitians in need.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/098428950X

Author Gil Ahrens Reaches Out to the Suffering in Haiti

Personal experience with loss and adversity leads Author to help others

During a weekend trip to attend his cousin’s wedding in Denver, Gilbert Ahrens’s world changed forever. His wife, Kim, had just given birth to their first (and only) child, and although she was still recovering from her C-section, they used the occasion to introduce their daughter to Gil’s extended family. After leaving the reception early, the Ahrens’ car was hit head-on by a drunk driver traveling 95 mph. Gil’s first book, Shattered, Shaken and Stirred: Reconnecting with What Matters Most After Loss and Adversity, is his account of the aftermath of the collision that left his wife paralyzed but their three-week-old daughter miraculously unscathed.

“People who go through challenges often think they are alone and that their struggle is uniquely incapacitating,” says Gil. “Part of my intent in writing this book was to say that they—we—are not alone. That the journey of hardship, no matter the form, is not an isolated trek. It is on a road shared by many others. And it is a road everyone travels on eventually. In fact, it is a foundational element of life, dating back to Adam and Eve and carrying through to the greatest example: Jesus. It’s incredibly naïve and selfish of us, really, to believe that we should be somehow immune from hardship and suffering, that somehow we are entitled to a blissful life, free of profound suffering.”

Gil holds degrees from New York University and Boston University and briefly studied music at the New England Conservatory of Music. Early in his business career, he co-founded a consumer electronics start-up and worked in Japan in strategic planning for a large global manufacturing company. Subsequently, Gil was an investment banker for several years, most recently as Managing Director at J.P. Morgan. He has also been an elder at Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco and is currently on the board of directors at Abilities United, a non-profit in Palo Alto, California, that helps champion those with developmental or physical challenges.

Gil now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is married to Kim, an amazing woman with whom he shares the joy of raising a charming, brilliant, and utterly wonderful daughter. Together, they all succumb to the whims of Sparky, their domineering Jack Russell Terrier, and Bella, a demur Scottish Terrier determined to dominate every inanimate object. Passionate about ice hockey, Formula 1 racing, University of Texas football, and cigars (a vice he acknowledges freely), Gil often wishes that he could be more Italian in mind, matter, or the spoken hand.