Katie Couric hosts 'When Families Grieve' a Sesame Street primetime special

For a child, the death of a parent is perhaps one of life's most difficult passages to navigate, not only for themselves but for their entire family. On Wednesday evening, April 14, 2010, PBS and the Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street presents an hour-long special, When Families Grieve, hosted by Katie Couric and Kevin Clash as "Elmo" at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Presented in high definition, When Families Grieve handles this daunting topic in an extremely sensitive and compassionate manner by including families’ personal stories about how they have coped with the loss of a parent and spouse. The program also utilizes the Sesame Street Muppets to aid in the communication between adults and children.

The show offers many insights and much hope by providing effective healing strategies that are child appropriate to help children as well as the surviving parent honor their grief and move ahead with their lives.

When Families Grieve is a continuation of Sesame Workshop’s award-winning Talk, Listen, Connect initiative, and because grieving is a family experience, over one million free outreach multimedia resource support kits will be available in English and Spanish after the program’s airing beginning April 15 at this link.

Military families and the general public can access either of the two customized versions of the When Families Grieve outreach kits - one designed to support the specific needs of military families and the other designed for the general public.

According to Sesame Workshop the free kits contain the following:

"A DVD featuring the Sesame Street Muppets and documentary footage of families who have experienced the death of a parent due to a variety of situations including illness, suicide, accidents, and other sudden or natural causes."

Print materials include:

"A guide for parents and caregivers providing tips, strategies, and activities to help comfort and reassure children through difficult times; a children’s storybook designed to comfort children as they cope with the death of a parent; and a facilitator’s guide with strategies for using the project’s components, as well as tips and activities to give to families with children coping with grief."

From statistics supplied by Sesame Workshop, it is “estimated 2.5% of children under age 18 have experienced the death of a parent (approximately 2.5 million children) and on March 10, 2010 TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) estimated that the 5,398 U.S. military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan had left 3,779 children without a parent, while 2,669 spouses had been widowed.”

Couric (herself a widow), known to millions over the years from co-hosting duties on NBC Television’s Today Show and her present day anchor role for the CBS Evening News lost her own husband, Jay Monahan to cancer in 1998 when her two daughters were just six and two years old.

In a statement to the press Couric said, "Death and loss are a part of life, but they are very difficult for adults to discuss, much less children. I'm honored that Sesame Street, with its long history of tackling difficult issues with sensitivity, caring and warmth asked me to be a part of this important project. I hope that it will provide families with the tools to help them cope, begin the healing process, and ultimately adjust to their 'new normal' in the healthiest way possible."

The video below is a preview of this very important program, Sesame Street: When Families Grieve, please share it with those who are in need and those you hold dear. I thank you.

The lovers, the dreamers and me: Jim Henson remembered

Today marks the birth date of one of those rare, multi-talented entertainment hyphenates, puppeteer-actor-producer-director-writer and composer, Jim Henson, whose legacy lives on in some of the finest children’s programming ever created. Born in 1936 in Greenville, Mississippi, Henson accomplished an outstanding, award-winning body of work in his 53 years of life, encompassing both television and film. Widely known as the creator of “The Muppets,” it was Henson’s skilled presentation of some of these beloved fabric characters, such as “Kermit the Frog” that provided dual stars for him and his amphibian characterization on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. It was also Henson’s puppetry talents that were instrumental to the success of one of the longest running and most honored children’s programs, Sesame Street. Henson’s life was cut short May 16, 1990, dying within a matter of days after contracting a streptococcal infection. Today, Henson’s creative work continues through his family-run Jim Henson Company, the Jim Henson Foundation and the multitude of products that bear his signature. Henson’s alter ego, better known as “Kermit the frog” lives on as well and is voiced by the talented actor, Steve Whitmire. Henson once said, “When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for having been there.” On September 26, 1992, Henson was proclaimed, "Humanitarian, muppeteer, producer and director of films for children that encourage tolerance, interracial values, equality and fair play," when he was posthumously awarded the Children’s Peace Award. This honor, which is part of the Courage of Conscience Awards, places his name and work alongside that of humanity’s finest contributors: names such as Mahatma Gandhi; John Lennon and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. 

The next time you hear the song  “Rainbow Connection” from the 1979 hit film, The Muppet Movie, which was originally sung by Henson as Kermit, remember the man who gave so much to us all.