Last night, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, paid tribute to military families and personnel with its eighth annual benefit dinner at Cipriani 42nd Street. This year’s event, emceed by ABC News’ Robin Roberts and the loveable 3 ½ year-old red monster, Elmo, included a special performance by John Legend, and celebrated the extraordinary impact that Sesame Workshop’s Talk, Listen, Connect outreach initiative continues to have on courageous military families across the globe.
This year, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, were honored for their work on behalf of military families. In addition, President and COO of American Greetings Corporation, Jeff Weiss, accepted the “Corporate Leadership Award” on the company’s behalf. Guests were treated to a ‘huge’ surprise when Snuffleupagus made a rare public appearance and joined Elmo and Robin on stage. The evening’s entertainment concluded with an inspirational performance of “Lean on Me” by John Legend and backed-up by Sesame Street friends Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Cookie Monster, Telly Monster, Rosita, Zoe and Grover.
“Sesame Workshop has always been at the forefront of creating resources for families with young children to help address some of life’s most difficult issues. This year’s benefit is a celebration of these efforts for military families around the world,” said Gary E. Knell, President and CEO of Sesame Workshop. “Vice President Biden and Dr. Biden are role models for military families, true global leaders, and friends of Sesame Workshop in support of its mission to help children reach their highest potential. The Workshop also wants to acknowledge Jeff Weiss and the American Greetings Corporation for their incredible support towards Sesame Workshop’s programming and initiatives.”
This year’s Gala raised over 2.2 million dollars and proceeds from the benefit help fund Sesame Workshop’s mission-driven educational projects for children around the world. The Workshop’s content provides kids and caregivers with access to learning not only letters and numbers, but also life skills such as social reasoning, conflict resolution, health maintenance, and disease prevention. It does so uniquely, in real-life contexts: tackling the stig
ma of HIV/AIDS in South Africa; championing girls’ education in Egypt; helping to promote cross-cultural respect and understanding among children in the Middle East; and, helping kids appreciate diversity. While Sesame Workshop’s efforts are supported in part from the sales of Sesame Street products, government grants, corporate sponsorships and philanthropic funding, the eighth Annual Sesame Workshop Benefit Dinner will help ensure that these and other programs, created on behalf of children, can continue into the future.
Talk, Listen, Connect has reached virtually every U.S. military family with young children since its launch in 2006. Through extraordinary public and private partnerships, Sesame Workshop has been able to provide much-needed support to military families facing deployments, combat-related injuries, or grieving the death of a parent or loved one. Talk, Listen, Connect includes the distribution of almost 2 million outreach kits, the Sesame Street/USO experience with live performances at military bases around the world, two award-winning television specials, and a social media site to help military families with young children stay connected.
Past honorees include Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, First Lady Laura Bush, former Secretary-General of the United Nations and Mrs. Kofi Annan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, Michael and Susan Dell, Richard D. Parsons, Chairman, Time Warner Inc., Alan C. Greenberg, Chairman of the Executive Committee of The Bear Stearns Companies Inc., Ann Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF and James E. Rohr, Chairman and CEO of The PNC Financial Services Group.
Benefit Chairs included: Joan Ganz Cooney and Peter G. Peterson; Brian Goldner, Hasbro, Inc.; Mr. and Mrs. Morry Weiss; Mr. and Mrs. Erwin Weiss; Mr. and Mrs. Zev Weiss; Mr. and Mrs. Gary Weiss. Co-Chairs included: Vincent E. Egan, VEE Corporation; Lyle G. Ganske, Jones Day; Gerald L. Hassell, BNY Mellon; HBO; Linda P. Hudson, BAE Systems, Inc.; Vincent and Anne Mai; Ogden CAP Properties, LLC; James E. Rohr, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.; Gordon “Butch” Stewart, Beaches Resorts; Jerry Storch, Toys”R”Us, Inc. Vice Chairs included: Jim Atchison, Sea World Parks & Entertainment; Bloomberg; Leigh Anne Brodsky, Nickelodeon/Viacom Consumer Products; Michael Brown, Jeffrey Conrad, Bill DeWitt, Michael Goulder, Catherine Kilbane, Gary Kopechek, Doug Rommel, American Greetings Corporation; John Garcia, AEA Investors LLC; Jane Hartley and Ralph Schlosstein; Robert A. Iger, The Walt Disney Company; Margaret McKenna, Walmart Foundation; Hal G. Rosenbluth, Kaufman Astoria Studios; Russell C. Petrella, Ph.D., AmeriChoice/UnitedHealthcare; Stanley S. Shuman, The Marc Haas Foundation; Susan and Peter Solomon; Tiger Baron Foundation.
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