The Eisner Foundation To Honor Motion Picture Television Fund As Winner Of The Eisner Prize For Intergenerational Excellence

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- This evening, the Eisner Foundation will be honoring the Motion Picture & Television Fund with the Eisner Prize for Intergenerational Excellence, a $150,000 prize that recognizes an individual or a non-profit organization for efforts to unite multiple generations – especially seniors and youth – and bring about positive, lasting changes in their communities. The Award will be given to the MPTF's Media Center for a multigenerational program that creates and produces original video content for YouTube. Program Director Jennifer Clymer and MPTF resident and former television writer Tony Lawrence will accept the prize on behalf of the Motion Picture & Television Fund tonight at the California Community Foundation's 2013 Unsung Heroes Awards.

"It is our honor and privilege to present this year's Eisner Prize for Intergenerational Excellence to the Motion Picture & Television Fund," said Michael Eisner.  "The Prize allows us to honor organizations that share our mission nationwide, with the hope that the good work being done can be replicated elsewhere. The folks at the MPTF's Media Center are doing remarkable work bringing retired members of the entertainment world together with young people aspiring for a career in the same industry. I would like to thank Bob Beitcher, President and CEO of the Motion Picture Television Fund, and Ken Scherer, CEO of the MPTF Foundation, for its continued dedication to intergenerational programming."   

The MPTF's Media Center will be cited for a unique program in its residential community that brings residents, professionals and industry volunteers together with high school students eager to begin a career in entertainment. Together, they create and edit original content that is aired for the MPTF residential community on its exclusive YouTube Channel, Channel 22. 

"I am so grateful for the enormous generosity of Michael and Jane Eisner for their recognition and support of the MPTF – an organization that means so much to all of us in the entertainment industry," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chairman of the MPTF Foundation. "I applaud them for focusing attention on programs that truly make a difference in the lives of seniors, something the MPTF has been doing for years, and can't thank them enough for giving back in this way."

"The Eisner Prize brings the subject of intergenerational programming, and its benefits, into a national conversation," said Trent Stamp, Executive Director of the Eisner Foundation.  "Highlighting programs across the country that bring seniors and youth together to enhance their communities is an important component of what the Eisner Foundation does. The Motion Picture & Television Fund's Media Center truly stands out by providing a creative way to build incredible, multigenerational relationships bonded together with a love of the industry." 

With the $150,000 prize money, the MPTF Foundation plans to continue to expand its Media Center intergenerational programming. 

About the Motion Picture & Television Fund's Media Center

http://www.mptf.com/channel22

The MPTF's Media Center is a model of senior engagement that marries creativity with technology, incorporating the involvement of multiple generations.  Recognizing that the urge to create never goes away, the Media Center pairs older adults with high school and college volunteers who share their diverse film experience spanning generations to create meaningful content together to be shown on their own internal television channel. 

About The Eisner Foundation

Founded in 1996 by Michael and Jane Eisner and their family, The Eisner Foundation exists to provide access and opportunity for children and the aging in Los Angeles County. The Foundation gives philanthropic support and counsel to exceptionally-run non-profit organizations working to create lasting positive changes in the lives of at-risk and disadvantaged seniors and children in the Los Angeles community. By making grants of over $7 million annually, the goal of The Eisner Foundation is simply to help Los Angeles be a place that protects and nurtures the region's most vulnerable citizens. To learn more about The Eisner Foundation, please visit the organization's website at www.eisnerfoundation.org, as well as https://www.facebook.com/EisnerFoundation, https://twitter.com/EisnerFound,

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheEisnerFoundation, and

http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-eisner-foundation.

SOURCE The Eisner Foundation