STARS STANDING UP!
Utilizing the Spotlight to Facilitate Change
03/03/08
1 commentActor Martin Sheen To Receive Medal From Notre Dame
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - Activist-actor Martin Sheen will be honored by the University of Notre Dame with its Laetare Medal for his humanitarian work, the school announced Sunday. Sheen, who starred as a U.S. president who was a Notre Dame graduate in NBC's ''The West Wing,'' is to receive the medal at the school's May 18 commencement.
Since 1883, the Laetare Medal has been awarded annually to a Catholic ''whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of humanity.'' Recipients include President Kennedy, former Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. and former U.S. House Speaker Thomas P. ''Tip'' O'Neill Jr.
Sheen has used his recognition as an actor to help others, said the university's president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins. ''He has used that celebrity to draw the attention of his fellow citizens to issues that cry out for redress, such as the plight of immigrant workers and homeless people, the waging of unjust war, the killing of the unborn and capital punishment,'' Jenkins said.
Sheen, 67, describes himself as a Catholic peace activist. He has been arrested for taking part in nonviolent demonstrations against various U.S. military policies, and has donated money and time to such causes as the alleviation of poverty and homelessness, human rights for migrant workers and environmental protection.
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American actress Drew Barrymore was named a World Food Program ambassador against hunger, the United Nations agency announced Wednesday.
Barrymore just returned from a trip to Kenya, where she toured WFP-supported school meal projects, the agency said in a statement. She plans to spend the week in Washington to advocate legislation in the U.S. Congress to increase money for school meals from $100 million (EURO 73.9 million) per year to about $300 million (EURO 221.7 million) per year over the next five years. "I can't think of any issue that is more important than working to see that no schoolchild in this world goes hungry," Barrymore said. "Feeding a child at school is such a simple thing, but it works miracles." Barrymore joins marathoner Paul Tergat as an ambassador. Tergat, from Kenya, benefited from school meal programs as a child, then won the New York City marathon in 2005. Founded in 1962, WFP provides food aid to an average of 90 million poor people, including 58 million hungry children in at least 80 of the world's poorest countries. The United States said it provides nearly half the annual contributions to the Rome-based agency, which has an annual budget of just under $3 billion (EURO 2.2 billion). |
