CAPITOL HILL EVENT

On June 7, 2006, ITVS hosted a lunchtime screening and discussion event for members of Congress and Congressional staff in the U.S. Capitol Building. The event was produced with the support of Congressman Ralph Regula and featured remarks by Congresswoman Deborah Pryce, co-chair of the House Cancer Caucus. Additional speakers included actress Doris Roberts and representatives from leading LION partner organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and others.

In addition to her remarks at the LION Capitol Hill luncheon, Congresswoman Pryce also made a formal announcement of the PBS broadcast premiere on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on June 21 to mark Gold Ribbon Days—a day of advocacy for childhood cancer on Capitol Hill. Representative Pryce also announced the LION broadcast premiere on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives during remarks in support of a bill to strengthen childhood cancer research, and sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to all 535 members of the House and Senate, calling their attention to the national broadcast on PBS. Never before has an ITVS Community Engagement Campaign succeeded in generating this level of attention among lawmakers and staff on Capitol Hill. Many thanks to our partners who supported these efforts.

Congresswoman Pryce’s remarks from the House floor are excerpted from the Congressional Record below:

Ms. PRYCE of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Deal for making this a priority, and Ranking Member Brown. I appreciate your words and I associate myself with both of your remarks, and I rise today as a voice for the thousands of families across America who have been touched by pediatric cancer.

Each day, two classrooms full of children are diagnosed, two classrooms, and I rise today for the children who will be diagnosed today and for their families who love them.

This week, we celebrate Gold Ribbon Days, a time for children and their families to come to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness about pediatric cancer. Some of those children are fighting their own battles. To them, we offer support. Some of these families have lost their children to cancer. To them, we offer compassion. And to some of those children who are survivors, they offer us hope.

This morning, I had a chance to spend time with the children and families in town for Gold Ribbon Days. We held a rally right outside the Capitol to tell our stories. We celebrated the fact that this body today would be considering this important resolution that will help raise awareness, education and research. Those families are so thankful, Representative Deal. Thank you so much for allowing us this time.

We also celebrated the premier tonight of the much anticipated documentary called ``A Lion in the House.'' This film, produced by two brilliant Ohio filmmakers, is extraordinary. It offers an unprecedented look at the cancer journey of five young people and their families over a 6-year period. For those of us who have traveled on our own journey, this film depicts our experiences, our struggles and our pain. For those of you who have not traveled on this journey, this film will give you empathy and compassion.

Never before has such a delicate and serious topic like childhood cancer been brought to the public's attention in such a powerful and meaningful way; real families sharing stories, the very, very private moments, the highs and the lows, the roller coaster of never knowing what lies around the corner, the confusion, the frustration and the darkness, the joy and the pain, the love and the loss.

The families we meet in the film, their resilience, courage and wisdom, remind us that while it is human nature to question the sanity and injustice of why such a tragedy has befallen those of us who have been touched by pediatric cancer, we must find a way to channel our pain and our anger into action to change the course of this disease. That is what Gold Ribbon Days is all about, and this resolution is part of our action plan.

I want to recognize and thank the pediatric cancer organizations, the advocates, the children and their families who are waging their own battle against cancer. They are the tireless soldiers in our army, and until we rid the world of the scourge that is childhood cancer, we must keep up our strong army and we must keep up the fight, and we shall. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

PUBLIC TELEVISION STATION GRANTS

ITVS and the Lance Armstrong Foundation have awarded outreach grants to ten public television stations working with local partners on the A LION IN THE HOUSE Community Engagement Campaign. Each station received an outreach grant in the amount of $10,000, to fund the following projects:

WGCU Public Media, Fort Myers, FL
WGCU Public Media will produce an episode of our local Health Sense television series on the topic of childhood cancer, survivorship and advocacy issues. They will also produce a local call-in TV program to air immediately following the broadcast of A LION IN THE HOUSE and will produce at least two local call-in radio programs, as well as radio features to air during NPR's Morning Edition. WGCU will also create a local website in support of project goals, information packets for dissemination to nursing students, and publish articles on the topics in the May and June issues of Expressions magazine.
Contact: psklodow@fgcu.edu

WPBA Public Broadcasting Atlanta, GA
WPBA's outreach collaborative will focus on child cancer survivorship. The campaign has two primary goals: to raise awareness of local organizations and resources and to connect pediatric cancer patients and their families with local organizations and services. The national series, combined with locally produced television and radio on-air elements, will motivate a variety of audiences to learn more, contribute financially and/or play an active role in helping children and their families. WPBA's outreach campaign will also ensure that Atlantans will be provided with comprehensive materials on the variety of ways they can get involved in their community.
Contact: bernice_mclean@wpba.pbs.org

UNC-TV, RTP, NC
UNC-TV will work with major organizations in North Carolina, dealing with the issues of pediatric cancer health disparities and survivorship, to produce a special, hour-long call-in program and other local productions. UNC-TV will also create a comprehensive website linking underserved rural citizens with local, state and national resources, will promote collaboration and information sharing among cancer institutions and will widely disseminate educational materials across the state.
Contact: mcorr@unctv.org

Maryland Public Television, Owings Mills, MD
Maryland Public Television will produce a local outreach campaign that aims to increase public awareness around pediatric cancer survivorship and end of life care issues through the A LION IN THE HOUSE premiere broadcast. MPT is proud to partner with a number of local organizations that serve kids battling cancer as well as their families, and to develop local strategies to achieve these goals. Community engagement activities will include local screening panel discussion events and a live phone bank during broadcast. Promotional support will include related segments on public affairs programs, partner-provided Web content and local media placement.
Contact: fmichel@mail.mpt.org

WHYY, Inc, Philadelphia, PA
The WHYY Children's Service has developed an innovative outreach campaign to extend the impact of A LION IN THE HOUSE in the Philadelphia region and throughout the nation. Highlights include a national hour-long radio documentary on children and cancer focusing on survivorship and health care disparities which will be fed to all NPR station affiliates in advance of the television broadcast; a three-minute clip from a radio documentary for stations to drop into their news shows to reach drive time radio listeners; a community engagement event at the WHYY studios featuring a screening of clips from the series and a panel discussion to highlight survivorship and heath care disparities with local and national partner groups; school district and educator outreach to get education professionals involved attending events and viewing the program through education networks and affinity groups that WHYY works with regularly.
Contact: spoglinco@whyy.org

WCET, Cincinnati, OH
CET will work with a collaborative of health care providers, support organizations and public service entities to focus on navigating the complex challenges of cancer survivorship and reducing cancer health disparities. Where possible, childhood cancer survivors will be included in activities. Resources and activities will include print, electronic and broadcast materials; educational resources for youth group leaders and teachers; and a culminating event that brings the community into contact with the program, its filmmakers, and the organizations that serve families who are experiencing or have experienced childhood cancer.
Contact: patsy_carruthers@wcet.pbs.org

WLJT-TV, Martin, TN
WLJT's outreach campaign involves prominent community organizations which will come together to educate the public about childhood cancer via a live one-hour community forum. After opening statements, a panel of experts will address questions from both the in-house and viewing audiences. WLJT will also produce a taped series of "Tell Your Story" segments involving local residents sharing their childhood cancer experiences, treatment options and impacts. The station will sponsor events at a children's health fair in Jackson, Tennessee and collaborate with the University of Tennessee at Martin's nursing program by integrating LION materials into classroom studies and discussions.
Contact: slasky@utm.edu

KTCA, St. Paul, MN
TPT will harness the energy created by A LION IN THE HOUSE with a gathering point event created in conjunction with the Mayo Clinic, Cancer Plan Minnesota and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. The event will convene stakeholders in childhood cancer survivorship issues for a facilitated conversation and discussion of best practices with an emphasis on resource sharing. The conversation will be disseminated via broadcast, recording and streaming. The project will include an online space to support ongoing cooperation, and a series of more intimate gatherings including screenings of A LION IN THE HOUSE and additional facilitated conversations.
Contact: asunwall@tpt.org

KNME ŠTV, Albuquerque, NM
KNME's "A LION IN THE CASA" Project is also called Un León en Casa y en el Pueblo y en el Hogan because New Mexico has many different kinds of houses: the Spanish casa, the American Indian pueblo and the Navajo hogan, to name a few. The project will outreach to the underserved Spanish and Native American speaking communities in New Mexico and will focus on heath disparities due to language, differences in cultural context and poverty. Using A LION IN THE HOUSE series and online resources as a catalyst, KNME and its partnering organizations will implement multilingual approaches to raise awareness and utilization of resources available to underserved New Mexico children with cancer.
Contact: ckeane@knme.org

KTOO-TV, Juneau, AK
The upcoming broadcast of A LION IN THE HOUSE will be the cornerstone of KTOO-TV's outreach efforts to build local partnerships and strengthen already established cancer-support services in Southeast Alaska. To increase awareness of childhood cancer in the community KTOO plans to implement educational outreach to schools as well as a public preview and discussion of the series. KTOO-FM Radio will support the project through news and public affairs programming. LION also will be used to support a local childhood cancer survivor network to provide children with a starting point to discuss their fears and concerns.
Contact: susans@ktoo.org