Sesame Street Partners with USO and MWR to bring the Muppets to military families at NAS Whidbey Island Saturday, July 26
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, and NAS Whidbey Island Morale, Welfare and Recreation have partnered to bring The Sesame Street Experience for Military Families to NAS Whidbey Island Saturday, July 26.
The free, 60-minute experience will feature a live Muppet performance, giveaways, outreach materials and a group photo framed by the Muppets. Two shows will be presented at NAS Whidbey Island’s Skywarrior Theater, at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Doors open 30 minutes prior to showtime. Seating is first-come, first served. Families should arrive early to ensure their admission. The performances will feature Elmo, Grover, Cookie Monster, Zoe and Rosita.
The tour, produced by VEE Corporation, is part of Sesame Workshop’s Talk, Listen, Connect initiative, the military outreach program that launched in 2006. This bi-lingual, multimedia initiative provides support and offers significant resources for military families with young children between the ages of 2 and 5 experiencing the effects of deployments, multiple deployments or when a parent returns home changed due to a combat related injury. The tour is exclusively for military families and closed to the general public.
“This is an excellent partnership and awesome learning opportunity for our military kids,” said Linda Jury, NAS Whidbey Island Child and Youth Programs manager. “We’re so excited to bring such a large-scale show to our small-town location.”
“The Sesame Street Experience for Military Families brings the Talk, Listen, Connect DVD and materials to life, and it reaches out directly to the families who face the challenges of military life each day,” said Gary E. Knell, president and CEO, Sesame Workshop. “Our partnership with the USO further extends this initiative. We’re visiting installations across the nation to help these families bond through emotionally difficult times, by providing an educational and entertaining show and outreach activities they can share.”
“This is a terrific, ground-breaking new program for military families,” said Edward A. Powell, president and CEO of USO World Headquarters. “Our partnership with Sesame Workshop on Talk, Listen Connect has been a great success and The Sesame Street Experience is a creative new way to deliver even more morale-boosting services and programs to our troops and their families.”