Tag / National Red Nose Day

by Frank Maduri

Red Nose Day 2019: Fight To End Child Poverty

Red Nose Day in the United States is today, May 23rd, and as I have done each year here on this blog, I wanted to try to spread awareness of this very important fundraising event to end child poverty.

Red Nose Day is run by Comic Relief USA in conjunction with major relief aid partners and national sponsors. The national sponsors again for the 2019 Red Nose Day event are: Walgreens, Mars Confectionary Company, Comcast NBCUniversal, and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Since the first Red Nose Day event in the US in 2015, about $150 million has been raised to help fight child poverty. These funds have helped 16 million children in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The funding has brought education to about 1 million children, essential medical services to 13 million children, and has helped 75,000 homeless children.

In addition, the funds raised by this event have provided 36 million meals to American children living in poverty, a major issue that is often overlooked because of the perception of our country’s wealth. In 2018, the Red Nose Day programs and events raised $47 million in the United States.

NBC is back as the main broadcast partner and will dedicate three hours of primetime television air time tonight to the Red Nose Day fundraising effort. The special program begins at 8 PM Eastern tonight with Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton among other stars that will highlight a two- hour block of coverage dedicated to raising awareness of childhood poverty. This includes a short film comedy sketch routine, and an appeals film by Milo Ventimiglia from “This Is Us”.

The network will close out the night from 10 PM to 11 PM Eastern with a special edition of “Hollywood Game Night” for Red Nose Day. Please tune in tonight to NBC for this important event.

Walgreens returns as a key sponsor of this event and the drugstore chain has sold 40 million of the iconic red noses since 2015 across their over 9,000 US locations. The healthcare retailer has made Red Nose Day a major event through store signage and advertising campaigns.

Mars Confectionary Company and their ubiquitous American brand, M&Ms have again donated $1 million to Red Nose Day in 2019. The company also raises additional money and support for the program through a month of events across their corporate locations aimed at raising awareness, funds, and volunteer hours across several communities in America.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is among the most well known in the world. Their mission is focused on children, and they provide funding and programming support for the donations raised from the event and how they are utilized to provide the maximum benefit to children in poverty.

We live in the wealthiest nation in the world. We all can do something within our means to help support Red Nose Day. The amount of children living in poverty in America is staggering 15 million, or 21% of all children in our country live in poverty according to various census related sources. The need is great both here and in underdeveloped areas of our world in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

We can help children, who cannot help themselves, to have their basic needs met. Please support this important event today by going to www.rednoseday.org and by following @RedNoseDayUSA on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Please share this with your friends and family.
The eradication of childhood poverty is the goal of Comic Relief USA and is shared by the sponsors of this event. I think we all need to share that goal, and each do our part to help this important event to succeed. Thank you all for your support of Red Nose Day 2019 and may God bless you for your efforts to help children in need.

(Background information courtesy of RedNoseDay.org, NBC.com, Walgreens.com, and the 2010 US Government Census Department)

by Frank Maduri

Red Nose Day 2018: Fighting Child Poverty

The annual event known as Red Nose Day will be held for the fourth time in the United States on Thursday, May 24th. The fundraising and awareness event seeks to combat the effects of child poverty both in the U.S. and throughout the world.

The entire day features activities aimed at connecting people to both the cause and to others within their respective communities. The goal being to raise funds for trusted partner organizations that work within our neighborhoods to provide food, medical care, and educational services to children in need.

The Red Nose Day fundraising special night of programming will air once again on NBC (for the fourth straight year) which will feature special editions of primetime programs similar to their approach last year. Then, at 10 PM Eastern/ 9 PM Central the Red Nose Day Special will air with Chris Hardwick hosting for the second consecutive year. The 2017 event raised $40 million according to the press release.

In the last three years the event has raised $100 million and helped over 8 million American children living in poverty. The event sponsors from last year have all renewed their commitments for 2018: Mars Wrigley Confectionary Company (M&Ms brand is a main sponsor), Walgreens, NBC, and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Comic Relief USA is the non-profit organization behind the entire Red Nose Day operation, both in the United States, the United Kingdom, and throughout the world in 34 different countries.

This is the fourth straight year that this blog has dedicated a post for this event and that is because of the important group that it serves: children. The world is filled with disadvantaged, impoverished, and malnourished children. The streets are filled with homeless children with no means of supporting themselves.
The Red Nose campaign has provided 32 million meals to children in the United States, has provided care for 60,000 homeless children, and provided medical services to 6.7 million children globally.

The Red Nose campaign has been in existence since 1988 and continues to benefit programs in a focused and local level to reach children very effectively. The Walgreens partnership has been very strong in pushing the event to the American audience through signage in their retail pharmacy locations, their website, and through media buys in print, radio, as well as television.

Please check out home.rednoseday.org for more information about events in your local area on Thursday, May 24th. The NBC primetime special programs will air that evening culminating with the special celebrity-filled event hosted by Chris Hardwick.

Please consider donating either through the Red Nose Day website, at your local Walgreens, or during the live fundraising event on Thursday night on your local NBC affiliate.

Your donation will go toward helping the most vulnerable within our population: children. Thank you for your support of this wonderful fundraising effort.

by Frank Maduri

Red Nose Day: Team Up To End Child Poverty

The third annual Red Nose Day takes place today, May 25th, focusing on raising both money and awareness to the devastating effects of child poverty. The event is sponsored by several companies, notably the ubiquitous American drug store chain, Walgreens.

The fundraising telethon and special program about Red Nose Day airs again this year on NBC. However, the network will take a different approach this year with a special celebrity edition of American Ninja Warrior (8 PM, EST) then a special Running Wild With Bear Grylls where Julia Roberts will join Grylls on a trek across Kenya to deliver vaccines to sick children (9 PM, EST) , and then will air the Red Nose Day Special hosted by Chris Hardwick which features appearances by several A-list comedians and musicians (10 PM, EST).

The first two editions of this event NBC have run a special 3-hour telethon type program with performances, comedians, and clips from the field in Developing World nations as well as economically depressed areas in the United States. This will be the first year that regular series programs have been dedicated as special features to raise money for this crucially important cause.

Red Nose Day began originally in the United Kingdom, and has spread to include events throughout the world which have raised $1 billion so far for children’s poverty. The funds are funneled to trusted partner organizations, some of the most recognizable and trusted non-profit charities in the world.

The money raised in the American version of this fundraising event has benefitted children in every state in our country as well as children in about 25 other countries throughout the globe. The American event has raised $60 million since it began in 2015.
Walgreens is a prominent sponsor of the event along with their subsidiary Duane Reade pharmacies, which have a huge presence in major East Coast cities especially New York City. Those retail pharmacy locations in both chains sell red noses for $1 and offer at point of sale the ability for the customer to donate to the effort.

The difference can be made without a huge donation, any amount will help children who are living in poverty both in America and throughout the world. I have covered Red Nose Day for the past three years, it is an amazing event that makes a huge impact. I have worked in the non-profit sector and I have worked as an independent writer with non-profit organizations, and this type of event will instantly help them to have the funding capability to help so many children in need.

A donation as small as $10 can help fund after school programs. A donation of $30 could help bring water to a village in the Developing World. It is in the small steps that a journey is completed.

Some of you may recall the excursion that actor Jack Black took for Red Nose Day to Africa, where the young boy there asks him to bring him back to America with him. That was a poignant scene, the boy was in poor health and malnourished. Then last year, the viewers got the update that the boy had been adopted and sponsored by an American family and was in school and well cared for, it is an incredible testimonial to the power of this event to change lives.

In a world marked lately by some terrible and terrifying events, this is one way where we can join together and change the narrative. This is one way where we can make a difference and do something positive to lift the spirits of the most vulnerable in our society, children living in poverty. I hope you will consider a donation to Red Nose Day.

Please visit https://rednoseday.org/donate-splash to learn more about this remarkable event that helps so many children. Please tune in to NBC tonight for all the special programs they have starting at 8 PM (Eastern). Please consider helping this cause to change and save the lives of those children in need. Thank you for your support and attention. May God bless you.

by Frank Maduri

Red Nose Day – Lifting Communities From Poverty

Walgreens and NBC are teaming up to bring Red Nose Day to America, the telethon starts tonight at 8 PM. This event has been held in the United Kingdom since 1988 and will be held in the U.S. for the first time. The goal of the event is to raise funds to be used by several of the world’s leading non-profit charitable organizations in order to lift communities out of poverty.

 

Some “A list” Hollywood talent has been recruited to participate in the program this year, and social media has been very active with pictures of people wearing red noses to signify the event. A source told the media that Walgreens sales of the red noses far outpaced their anticipated demand.

 

The event has characteristically done well in the past in raising money in Britain for several charitable organizations. The U.S. telethon has a website where you can find out plenty of information about the event and the charities involved: www.rednoseday.org

 

The importance of the work done by these organizations cannot be emphasized enough. The money raised has three goals for children and families: keep them safe, educate them, and ensure that they are healthy. The proceeds from tonight will be split with half going to the U.S. domestic based charitable programs and half going to programs to aid the poorest countries in the world.

 

The recent earthquake in Nepal, rising terrorist activities in Africa, and human rights issues throughout Asia underscore the need for these programs at this point for the international community. The poor communities in the world are threatened by drought conditions, economic stagnation, and political instability. The funds raised tonight will dramatically assist these organizations in helping those in need throughout the world.

The domestic side of the fundraising effort will help assist several notable charities such as Oxfam America, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, LIFT, Feeding America, and the United Way. The stagnant job market, flat wages, and increased reliance on assistance programs such as food stamps have left so many American children hungry and families struggling.

 

You can make a difference in helping the communities located right in your own city or your home state to combat the perils of poverty. You can help these communities find a way to provide healthcare and educational opportunities so that they can thrive once again.

 

National Red Nose Day is an effort to raise awareness to the work that is done by these organizations, work that is critical to helping our communities and to helping children and families in need throughout the world. It is meant to be a starting point for other efforts toward education, fundraising, and volunteerism to continue throughout the year.

 

Please tune in to NBC tonight at 8 PM for the telethon and to help these communities both at home and abroad to make our world a better place for those most in need of our care and support. Thank you for taking the time to read this and to support this effort.