A LOCAL NEWS STORY ABOUT MY APPEARANCE ON THE COVER OF PARADE MAGAZINE

This piece ran in today's issue of The North Iowa Times, Iowa's third oldest weekly.

Local woman makes

front cover of Parade magazine

By Trudy Balcom

She is perhaps McGregor’s most famous living resident. The Rev. Laura Gentry, laughter yoga expert, appeared on the April 15 cover of national newspaper insert, Parade Magazine.

The issue featured the 30th annual report about what people earn at various jobs, including celebrities and more ordinary people. For this year’s issue, the editors contacted some of the people they interviewed for previous issues. Laura Gentry was selected, rather by accident, to be included in the 2001 issue of the magazine.

At that time, Gentry, was serving as minister at American Lutheran Church in Burbank, Calif, making $31,000. A woman who was working as a photographer for Parade was a friend-of-a-friend of Gentry’s. When the photographer said she was looking for a pastor to include in the earnings issue, the friend introduced her to Gentry. “It was totally random,” Gentry explained.

This time she was contacted directly by the magazine. She says was a little reticent about publicly stating her earnings. “You are really putting yourself out there,” Gentry exclaimed.

She said that her pay as a pastor at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Lansing is “no secret,” but her congregation was probably not aware of the amount of money she earns teaching and promoting laughter yoga. And since the very brief magazine blurb made no mention of her work as a pastor, the number is a little confusing. The magazine reported her total salary at $53,066 (Gentry said that about half of her total earnings come from her part-time pastor’s position).

William Gentry, Laura’s husband is a photographer as well as minister at the First Congregational Church in McGregor. The magazine used one of his pictures of Laura for the front cover.

Gentry promotes laughter yoga for good health and good spirits, and teaches classes locally and across the U.S. and has even worked in other counties. To learn more about her laughter yoga practice, visit at her web site at www.laughinglaura.com.

LAUGHTER AMBASSADOR APPEARS AS A JOB TITLE IN PARADE MAGAZINE

See a familiar face on this preview shot of the cover of Parade Magazine for April 15, 2012? That's right, it's me! 

Eleven years ago, an LA-based photographer for Parade was looking for a pastor willing to be in the annual What People Earn issue.  A mutual friend suggested me and at that time, I was just young and naive enough to be willing to admit my age and salary. So I agreed and was included.

Well, this year Parade Magazine contacted me again asking if I'd be willing to be in their 30th anniversary issue. They were interested in how my job and salary had changed in the years since my first appearance. Back in 2001, I was a Lutheran pastor. Today, I am still a Lutheran pastor, but my ministry has expanded. I am also a Laughter Yoga Master Teacher, motivational speaker, artist, author, record producer, filmmaker and freelance writer. How could I possibly sum that all up in one short job title (which is all they would allow)? Finally, the editor and I decided to simply call me a "Laughter Ambassador." This is an honorary title, which was bestowed upon me by Laughter Club International a few years ago. I've taken that role seriously and have been spreading laughter around the globe. I think it does well at describing the diverse work that I do.

Best of all, this appearance in Parade Magazine will give laughter a plug. Yes, being a "Laughter Ambassador" is a real job. Ha ha! Who knew? I hope it will inspire others to do laughter work as well. We can never have enough ambassadors of laughter!

Oh, and by the way, I want to point out that the new photo was taken by my brilliant husband, William. 33 million copies of his photograph are being printed for this weekend. That's a pretty cool photo credit.