As Nickelodeon celebrates this year’s five HALO Awards honorees this Nov. 30 for their commitment to service; the network is adding two pro-social elements to the telecast that will let audiences deepen their connections and commitments to the causes they care about.
Nickelodeon is taking its HALO Effect initiative into 2015 with $50,000 of grants to fund kids’ charitable efforts, and is also launching on Nov. 15 a pro-social project with DoSomething.org designed to connect kids and teens to the community service initiatives championed by this year’s five Nickelodeon HALO Awards honorees. The HALO Awards is Nickelodeon’s annual event that recognizes real-life kids who are doing extraordinary things in their communities and ‘Helping and Leading Others’ (HALO).
This year’s HALO honorees — Lulu Cerone, Yash Gupta, Cassandra Lin, Nicolas Lowinger and Alanna Wall — are being commended for their work to raise awareness across numerous issues relevant to kids today, including environmental sustainability, volunteerism, helping the underprivileged, and building awareness for youth philanthropy. Kids and teens can visit DoSomething.org/HALO and click on the profile of each HALO honoree to sign up and participate in activities that include creating activity books for kids in hospitals, encouraging friends and family to decrease oil waste, donating gently worn eyeglasses and backpacks, and teaching internet safety tips to friends and family. Additionally, users can upload images showcasing how they participated in these activities and earn an opportunity to be nominated for Nickelodeon’s year-round pro-social initiative, HALO Effect.
The HALO Effect initiative recognizes one deserving teen every month for “helping and leading others” (HALO) in their community. Over the past year HALO Effect has awarded more than $50,000 to 10 kids across the country to help fund their charitable organization of choice. HALO Effect awards a $5,000 grant to a charity of each teen’s choosing. Teens selected are also featured in an on-air profile on TeenNick and highlighted on TeenNick.com throughout each month. This year’s HALO Awards will showcase the work of the 2014 HALO Effect winners during the hour-long concert special.
“The Nickelodeon HALO Awards celebrates what is truly a generational movement among kids and teens about the need to address the most pressing issues of our time,” said Marva Smalls, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, Nickelodeon Group. “Our hope is that the platform we are giving this year’s HALO Awards honorees will serve as inspiration to kids across the country.”
“The impact of the Halo Awards will extend beyond the screen and into the homes and communities of young people across the country. We built five custom campaigns, influenced by the rockstar Halo honorees and their causes, so inspired viewers can take an immediate action for social good. It’s simple: tune in, take action,” said Naomi Hirabayashi, Chief Marketing Officer at DoSomething.org.
The sixth annual HALO Awards will celebrate the work of five teens that are actively helping others in their communities with a concert special featuring performances by Jessie J, Nick Jonas, Meghan Trainor, The Roots, Echosmith, The Vamps and Fifth Harmony; along with appearances by Zendaya, Victoria Justice, Carlos PenaVega, and Nickelodeon’s live-action stars. Led by host/creator/executive producer Nick Cannon the hour-long concert will premiere across Nickelodeon’s networks (Nickelodeon, TeenNick, Nicktoons) on Sunday Nov. 30, at 7 p.m. (ET/PT) and stream live for the first time ever on Nick.com, the Nick App and Nick Radio.
Nick.com/halo and the Nick App are the official digital destinations for all things HALO. Kids will be able to learn all about the HALO Awards, relive the best performances from last year’s show, watch videos featuring Nick Cannon and all of this year’s musical acts, flip through photo galleries featuring kids who have HALO’d, find out which celebs will have a front row seat to this year’s concert event, and score some exclusive sneak peeks before the show.
Presenting sponsors of the annual Nickelodeon HALO Awards are Green Giant, Reese’s Puffs Cereal and Dave & Buster’s.
The Nickelodeon HALO Awards is produced by Superfly in association with Nickelodeon Productions. Nick Cannon, Alex Coletti, Jay Schmalholz and Shelly Sumpter Gillyard are executive producers.
