Sen. John Edwards
WCBS Newsradio 880
The National Farmworker Ministry
New York - On June 9th at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in New York City WHY (World Hunger Year) will pay tribute to the 2008 WHY-Chapin Award Honorees and honor the 2007 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award winners. These honorees are being recognized for their exemplary work and dedication on issues of hunger and poverty on a local, national and worldwide level.
- In a musical career spanning more than 28 years, Elvis Costello is best known for his performances with The Attractions, The Imposters and with pianist, Steve Nieve, as well as for pop, rock, operatic and jazz collaborations. His charitable efforts are as varied as the balance of his work: performances and other appearances to raise funds for Hurricane Katrina victims; Live Aid for African Famine Relief; Virgin Unites' Heaven's Angel's Campaign to send health-care workers and critical medicines and supplies into remote areas of sub-Saharan Africa; and the Richard deLone Special Housing Fund for Prader-Willi Syndrome ? a chromosome disorder that affects 1-in-15,000 births and leaves its victims starving, among others.
- From the start of his career as a trial lawyer, spanning his service in the U.S. Senate and two Presidential candidacies, to director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Sen. John Edwards works tirelessly as an advocate for people living in poverty. Today, he keeps the public dialog focused by reminding us that "[i]n the richest country in the history of the globe, we have more millionaires and more billionaires that ever - but we also have more Americans living in poverty - 37 million people unable to fulfill their basic needs of food and shelter, no matter how many jobs they work - not less."
- In the great CBS tradition of Edward R. Murrow, WCBS Newsradio 880 has been serving radio listeners in the Greater New York area with the very best of news, traffic, and weather since 1967. WCBS Newsradio 880 is also the home base for WHY's annual Hungerthon broadcast. As demonstrated by its partnership with WHY, WCBS Newsradio 880 doesn't just cover its community, WCBS Newsradio is part of the community, committed to telling stories, and supporting programs that can make a difference in the world we all live in.
- National Farm Worker Ministry (St. Louis, MO) is an interfaith organization that supports farm workers as they organize for empowerment, justice, and equality, educating people about farm worker conditions through labor camp tours, workshops, publications, videos, web and e-news, then mobilizes them to act in support of farm worker campaigns through letter writing, marches, vigils or boycotts. Together with farm workers, NFWM harvests justice!
Honorary Dinner Chairs
- Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has been an active part of WHY and its work since the beginning. Along with Harry Chapin, he served on the Presidential Commission on World Hunger. For more than 25 years, he has served on WHY's Board of Directors and Advisory Board. In 2000, WHY honored Leahy with its first Lifetime Achievement Award.
- Marilyn Bergman is President and Chairman of the Board of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and the first woman to be elected to its Board of Directors. She brings to the leadership of ASCAP the unique experience of the creator, being herself an award-winning lyricist along with her husband, Alan Bergman.
The 2007 winners of the Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards will also be recognized.
***WHY is a nonprofit organization co-founded by the late singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, and radio talk show host and present Executive Director Bill Ayres in 1975. WHY attacks the root causes of hunger and poverty by promoting effective and innovative community-based solutions that create self-reliance, economic justice and food security.
