CNN Announces Finalists for 'CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute'

    ATLANTA, Nov. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- CNN today revealed the names of 18
 finalists for "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," the culmination of a five-
 month audience nomination process through which ordinary people will be
 recognized for accomplishing extraordinary things. Hosted by CNN's Anderson
 Cooper and Christiane Amanpour, "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" will air
 live globally on CNN/U.S., CNN International and CNN en Espanol on
 Thursday, Dec. 6, at 9 p.m. (ET).
 
     In its first year of the CNN Heroes initiative, CNN received more than
 7,000 nominations from viewers in 80 countries, nominating people from more
 than 90 countries.
 
     Honorees will be announced at the Dec. 6 gala at the American Museum of
 Natural History in New York City, which will include performances from
 Grammy Award winners Mary J. Blige and Sheryl Crow and a duet by Grammy
 Award winner Norah Jones and acclaimed performer-producer Wyclef Jean.
 Presenters will include Tyra Banks, Glenn Close, Harry Connick, Jr.,
 Rosario Dawson, LL Cool J, Kyra Sedgwick and Jimmy Smits.
 
     "We're honored to shine the spotlight on some of the world's lesser
 known heroes with the help of an esteemed slate of performers and
 presenters," said Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide. "While other
 awards programs venerate those who are already celebrated, we are
 recognizing the unheralded, the ones who accomplish great things without
 the benefit of recognition."
 
     From May 1 through September, CNN Worldwide has featured everyday
 heroes across its television networks, digital services and at
 www.CNN.com/Heroes, encouraging viewers to nominate local heroes they deem
 deserving of recognition as a CNN Hero. The finalists in each of the six
 categories include:
 
 
     * MEDICAL MARVEL - Peter Kithene of Seattle, who founded a clinic in his
        native Kenya that has provided services to more than 18,000 patients;
        Ann McGee of Las Vegas, who started a transportation program to provide
        free medical flights for families with gravely ill children; and S.
        Ramakrishnan of Ayikudy, India, a quadriplegic man who runs one of
        India's largest centers for the disabled, serving people from 330
        surrounding villages.
      * YOUNG WONDER - Kayla Cornale, 18, of Burlington, Ontario, Canada, who
        developed a musical system to improve communications with autistic
        people; Dallas Jessup, 15, of Vancouver, Wash., who produced a video
        and an online program designed to teach young women and girls how to
        escape an attacker; and Josh Miller, 17, of Santa Monica, Calif., who
        established a student-run nonprofit group dedicated to motivating high
        school students of all backgrounds to succeed in school and life.
      * CHAMPIONING CHILDREN - Dr. Rick Hodes of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, who has
        served as a conduit for Ethiopian children to receive essential
        vaccinations, surgeries and other medical procedures; Scott Loeff of
        Chicago, who founded a camp for children with Tourette Syndrome to
        enable them to fit in with other children; Steve Peifer of Kijabe,
        Kenya, who combated severe dropout rates in Kenya by ensuring that more
        than 11,000 children have daily lunches at school and access to
        computers.
      * COMMUNITY CRUSADER - James McDowell, a U.S. Army sergeant major who
        serves with the 82nd Airborne in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and led efforts
        to encourage Afghan farmers to switch from growing poppies to equally
        profitable saffron bulbs; Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe of Gulu, Uganda, who
        opened a school in her town to rehabilitate girls devastated by the
        Lord's Resistance Army; Julie Rems-Smario of Oakland, Calif., who
        founded a nonprofit agency that serves deaf survivors of domestic and
        sexual violence.
      * DEFENDING THE PLANET - Florence Cassassuce of La Paz, Mexico, who
        invented a five-gallon bucket that can purify several days' worth of
        water in four minutes; Irania Martinez Garcia of Guantanamo, Cuba, who
        has taught hundreds of residents to learn how to grow food efficiently
        while using organic and sustainable materials from the local dump and
        their own trash; and Mark Maksimowicz of St. Petersburg, Fla., who co-
        founded a volunteer armada of boats to help clean up North American
        coasts.
      * FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE - Pablo Fajardo of Lago Agrio, Ecuador, who seeks
        to force one of the world's largest oil corporations to pay more than
        $6 billion to clean up toxic waste in the Amazon rain forest; Rangina
        Hamidi of Stone Ridge, Va., who founded a company that enables women in
        her native Afghanistan to make money from their intricate embroidery
        skills; and Lynwood Hughes of Rocky Mount, N.C., who started a
        nonprofit group to help U.S. veterans secure their disability benefits.
     Joel Gallen, who has helmed ambitious telethon events supporting
 victims of both the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina,
 serves as executive producer for the event. Gallen won a Peabody Award for
 "America: A Tribute to Heroes" and has been nominated for several Emmys
 throughout his career. Kelly Flynn is senior executive producer for the CNN
 Heroes initiative.
 
     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.
 
 
 

SOURCE CNN