“CNN Heroes” Announces Event to Honor Los Angeles Resident Marie Da Silva
CNN Heroes and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will honor Los Angeles resident Marie Da Silva on Nov. 17 in anticipation of “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” launched last year to spotlight ordinary citizens accomplishing extraordinary deeds, and airing on Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT). Da Silva was named a CNN HEROES honoree last month for her work to help educate and feed AIDS orphans in her home country of Malawi. She will be awarded $25,000 - and is eligible for the $100,000 prize that will be bestowed upon the CNN HERO OF THE YEAR later this month. Hosted by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE will air globally on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español.
This year’s Top 10 CNN Heroes, as selected by the Blue Ribbon Panel, were unveiled by Cooper on CNN’s American Morning last month. The public will select the “CNN Hero of the Year” via voting at the CNN Heroes site at www.CNN.com/Heroes through Wednesday, Nov. 19. At the November gala, CNN will honor the 10 heroes and reveal the CNN Hero of the Year. In its second year, the multiplatform initiative received nearly 4,000 submissions from 75 countries. The inaugural CNN Heroes tribute broadcast in 2007 featured appearances by Glenn Close, Harry Connick Jr. and Jimmy Smits, as well as performances by Mary J. Blige, Sheryl Crow and Wyclef Jean with Norah Jones. In the United States, a cumulative 7.2 million total viewers and nearly 2.9 million P25-54 viewers watched the tribute; millions more watched worldwide.

 
Hero Honoree Marie Da Silva was born and raised in the southern African country Malawi, where AIDS is rampant. Da Silva lost 14 family members, including her father and two brothers, to the disease. From her new home in Los Angeles, where she works as a nanny for actress Ricki Lake, Da Silva is taking action to give the orphans of AIDS victims in Malawi new hope. In 2002, when she learned that the school in her home town was going to close, Da Silva urged her mother to let the children gather and learn in their family home, with her financial support. The school is now thriving in her childhood home and more than 200 children, most of whom are AIDS orphans, receive porridge every morning and education, free of charge. It is an effort that Da Silva funds almost entirely herself, sending $1,000, about one-third of her monthly paycheck, to pay the salaries of 12 teachers and the headmaster, and purchase whatever supplies she can afford. Several of her fellow nannies have even gotten involved, donating $10 a month to her foundation.
WHO: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
Marie Da Silva, CNN Hero Honoree
Ricki Lake, Da Silva’s employer
Wildwood Upper School students
WHEN: Mon., Nov. 17, 9:00am
WHERE: Wildwood Upper School
11811 W. Olympic Blvd. Los Angeles, CA
CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.
CONTACT: Abby Ottenhoff, 773-266-1884, aottenhoff@gmail.com
Bridget Leininger, CNN Public Relations; 404/827-1621; bridget.leininger@cnn.com

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