World of Children Award, a global recognition and funding organization for people specifically and exclusively serving the needs of children, announced today the three extraordinary individuals that will be honored at World of Children Award 2016 Alumni Honors on Tuesday, April 12 at the Montage Beverly Hills.
Brooke Burke-Charvet, TV Personality, Actress, and CEO of ModernMom, will return for the second year as the Master of Ceremonies for the evening.
World of Children Award identifies changemakers that create proven, sustainable programs for children, and awards grants to advance their work at an annual awards ceremony in New York City. For the second year, the organization will host an event in Beverly Hills commemorating past honorees who have continued their extraordinary efforts to change the lives of vulnerable children around the world. Each 2016 Alumni Honoree will receive a specially designed James Banks Design medal and a minimum cash grant of $20,000 to continue their outstanding work with children.
The 2016 Alumni Honorees include: Ryan Hreljac (2003 World of Children Award Youth Honoree), founder of Ryan’s Well Foundation, which brings clean water and sanitation to vulnerable youth and their families in the poorest regions of the worlds’ developing countries; Denisse Pichardo (2011 World of Children Award Humanitarian Honoree), director of Caminante Proyecto Educativo, which rescues and shelters youth victims of the sex tourism industry in the Dominican Republic; and Dr. Ashok Banskota (2011 World of Children Award Health Honoree), founding chairman of the Hospital and Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Children (HRDC) in Nepal, which focuses on treating underprivileged children with orthopedic disabilities.
“We are truly amazed and inspired by the work each of these three individuals has done for children,” said Harry Leibowitz, World of Children Award Co-Founder and Co-Chair. “We are so impressed by what each of them accomplished as a result of the World of Children Award recognition and funding that we are proud to recognize them once again and provide additional support for their programs to help even more children.”
The 2016 Alumni Honors event will include a cocktail reception, dinner, and special performances by the Yermin Orde Youth Choir from the Yermin Orde Youth Village in Israel and the Carlthorp School Chorus from Carlthorp School in Santa Monica, CA. The special evening will also feature the honorees sharing their courageous stories about their work with children, and the invaluable role World of Children Award has played in their lives. Additionally, the latest pieces from the “Unlock the Future” jewelry collection made exclusively for World of Children Award by Heidi Nahser Fink and Adam Shulman of James Banks Design will be available for purchase with 100% of proceeds going to the organization. For more information on the exclusive jewelry pieces or to purchase online, please click here.
World of Children Award is led by Co-Founders Harry Leibowitz and Kay Isaacson-Leibowitz, retired senior executives from Procter & Gamble and Victoria’s Secret respectively. Since they founded the organization in 1998, with the goal of setting the gold standard in child advocacy award programs, World of Children Award has granted more than $7 million in cash grants and program support to more than 100 Honorees who are the driving force behind programs that have served tens of millions of children worldwide.
The Honorary Chairs for the 2016 Alumni Honors event include Lina and John Paul Beltran, Dawn and Jae Goodman, Veronica and Brian Grazer, and David E. Salzman. In addition, the Event Co-Chairs include Sandy Sholl, Adam Freede, Willow and Bertan Kalatchi, Adam Shulman, Sarah Conner, Craig Leibowitz, and Kay Isaacson-Leibowitz and Harry Leibowitz.
Find out more about the event here.
