Spring Awakening Cast Lends Hand To Operation Backpack 7/9

Cast members from Broadway's Tony Award-Winning Spring Awakening join with Volunteers of America's Operation Backpack (OBP) in an appearance at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, Wednesday, July 9th, as a kick-off for this year's campaign, helping school-aged children all over NYC.  The show's cast members will appear in an OBP public awareness campaign about the needs of homeless children that will appear on bus-sides and phone kiosks all around the city, starting later this month. Cast members will be signing "limited-edition" poster-sized copies of the ads, for a $20 donation to OBP. Coldstone Creamery also joins the event, providing tasty ice cream creations, to the first 100 who participate, as supplies last.

The event will take place from 12:00pm-12:45PM. (The cast will sign as many of the limited-edition posters as possible, as time permits).

Spring Awakening continues its record-breaking run at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, 230 W. 49th Street. The musical, with music by Duncan Sheik and books and lyrics by Steven Sater is choreographed by Bill T. Jones and directed by Michael Mayer. The groundbreaking hit musical won 8 2007 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.  More info: www.SpringAwakening.com

Now in its 5th year, Volunteers of America's Operation Backpack will be working with more than 70 companies to hold back-to-school drives, encouraging employees to collect and fill backpacks. Storefronts and City Councilpersons provide Official Drop Locations, enabling the public to donate backpacks. FedEx donates their time and talent by transporting all the supplies and backpacks that have been collected to our sort location. This year, children from several public and private schools hosted fundraising drives and filled more than 250 filled backpacks, before this year's campaign even kicked off!  During Sort Week, the culminating event of Operation Backpack, corporate volunteers help fill thousands of backpacks. This year with even more public and corporate support, the goal is to give all 11,000 children a new, filled backpack. www.OperationBackPackNYC.org