SESAME STREET MUPPETS HELP KIDS BECOME RESILIENT!
‘WHAT WE ARE’ ANTHEM DEBUTS
ON THE INTREPID IN NYC IN HONOR OF MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND
Elmo, Rosita and Gordon Perform Live with the Quantico Marine Corps Band and
Matt Rogers, Host of Lifetime’s Coming Home
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New York, New York, May 23, 2012. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, kicks off its newest outreach initiative, Little Children, Big Challenges, for military, veteran, and general public families with young children. This initiative aims to provide the skills and strategies young children need to build resilience and persevere through day-to-day as well as more serious changes and transitions. Early childhood has been emphasized as a crucial time for promoting resilience, as it can lead to a significant impact on children’s well-being and future success in all areas of life.[1],[2] Little Children, Big Challenges will kick off with a new anthem, What We Are, which will be performed live on the Intrepid (Saturday, May 26th) by the Quantico Marine Corps Band with Sesame Street’s Gordon, Elmo and Rosita, and the host of Lifetime’s Coming Home, Matt Rogers.
Here is an excerpt from the new anthem:
CHORUS
Muppets: Oh, going to hold our heads up high
Kids: High!
Muppets: Keep on reaching high!
Kids: High!
Muppets: Never gonna quit
Just keep getting stronger!
And nothing’s gonna bring us down
Kids: No!
Muppets: Never givin’ up gotta go
Kids: Go!
Muppets: Because we know, we’ll keep getting stronger!
“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.” said H. Melvin Ming, President and CEO of Sesame Workshop. “Little Children, Big Challenges is Sesame Workshop’s contribution to all those who face the challenge of helping a child cope with life’s highs and lows and help our kids reach their highest potential.”
Little Children, Big Challenges is a multiyear, bilingual (English/Spanish) initiative that will provide tools to help encourage parents, caregivers, and educators to use positive routines to help foster young children’s resilience on a daily basis. This initiative will help all children cope with trying new things, learning from mistakes, making new friends, resolving conflicts, the bedtime blues, and understanding their own abilities. In addition to helping children cope with these day-to-day challenges, Little Children Big Challenges will also tackle more serious changes and transitions such as bullying, and when parents are divorced or incarcerated. Sesame Workshop is committed to providing free multimedia resources to all families raising preschoolers and these kits will be distributed through partnerships with Military OneSource, the Military Child Education Coalition and the USO. Additionally, Sesame Workshop will distribute to general public families through partnerships with parenting, child-care, health, and education programs, social work organizations, counselors and psychologists, and bullying prevention organizations.
The What We Are anthem will be available on Sesame Street’s website for military families, as well as Sesame Street’s YouTube Channel. In addition, new online resources for Little Children, Big Challenges will feature the anthem along with new interactive tools for children and families. Finally, in conjunction with this event, major updates to Sesame’s Feel Electric! mobile app, a free resilience tool for school-aged children, will be available on May 26, 2012 for Apple iPod, iPhone and Android devices.
Major support for Little Children, Big Challenges provided by BAE Systems, Inc. Generous support provided by The Prudential Foundation, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, the USO, and Military Child Education Coalition.
In the June 1st episode of Lifetime’s Coming Home, Sesame Street’s very own Elmo and Rosita, along with host, Matt Rogers, travel all the way to Fort Bliss, Texas, to put together a once-in-a-lifetime surprise for the children of an Army sergeant who are having an especially hard time with their father’s deployment in Iraq. Not a day goes by that Tristan and Alyssa Bomarito don’t miss their father Sgt. Mark Bomarito. To Tristan, Mark is not just Dad, he’s his best friend. In one of the series’ most emotional and heartfelt moments Elmo and Rosita enlist the help of a General to bring the children of Fort Bliss together and create a surprise this family will never forget.
About Sesame Workshop: Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization that revolutionized children’s television programming with the landmark Sesame Street. The Workshop produces local Sesame Street programs, seen in over 150 countries, and other acclaimed shows including The Electric Company, to help bridge the literacy gap. Beyond television, the Workshop produces content for multiple media platforms on a wide range of issues including literacy, health and military deployment. Initiatives meet specific needs to help young children and families develop critical skills, acquire healthy habits and build emotional strength to prepare them for lifelong learning. Learn more at www.sesameworkshop.org.
Visit Sesame Street at:
www.sesamestreet.org
Sesame Street on Facebook
Sesame Street on Twitter
The Sesame Street YouTube Channel
Learn more about Sesame Street’s Military Family Initiative:
Sesame Street for Military Families on Facebook
[2] Blum, Lynne Michael. Resilience Building Through the Early Childhood Years. White paper. p. 5.
