Nick News Revisits The Katrina Kids

Nick News Revisits The Katrina Kids

Nick News with Linda Ellerbee: Children of the Storm

Airs Sunday, July 2, 2006, 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on Nickelodeon

NEW YORK, June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- In the next installment of Nick News, Linda Ellerbee returns to New Orleans to see how kids there are coping almost a year after hurricane Katrina ravaged their city. While grown-ups work to restore the basics: food, shelter and clothing; kids are struggling to find ways to cope with the loss, to remember but not live in the past. Nicks News with Linda Ellerbee: Children of the Storm, airing Sunday, July 2, at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT tells the story of the Katrina kids.

"Katrina has shown these kids that it can all be gone in a moment, but through their hardship the children of New Orleans have learned what they're made of," said Ellerbee. "We must not forget these kids, or ignore them, or neglect them. We must, in fact, honor them."

In Children of the Storm, kids share their reasons for returning to a city once known for its music, food and history, now known for its destruction, poverty and mountainous piles of trash-and their reactions to what it's like to be back. We hear from kids like Erica, who lives in a FEMA trailer in what was once her front yard, but says she still feels far from home and we meet Clive, who takes us on a tour of the lower 9th ward, where he used to live, and talks about a life that's forever changed.

With 80% of public schools in New Orleans still closed, many kids have been forced to bounce from state to state, and school to school, some kids even missing up to five months of classes. We will hear from some of these kids as they share with us their experiences and give insight into the difficulties of learning while on the move.

Ten months after the storm, there are kids in New Orleans who cry when it starts to rain but, there are also people trying to help them. Groups such as Ya-Ya (Young Aspirations/Young Artists), an organization which is working to give kids a voice through-art, music and poetry are helping kids tell their stories, hopes and fears. If their poems are not generally happy, they are very real.

Not surprisingly, kids across the country have banned together and are doing what they can to help too. We meet students from The National Relief Network in Flint, Michigan, who took a bus to New Orleans to help gut houses. Also, we meet the Katrina Krewe, made up of volunteers from New Orleans, including kids, who have come together to clean up the mountains of trash still found around New Orleans.

The children of New Orleans have seen and suffered loss. In the past year many of them have learned more about life, death-and everything in between- than some grownups will learn, ever. They are survivors and through their stories they inspire us all.

Nick News, celebrating its 15th year, is the longest-running kids' news show in television history, and has built its reputation on the respectful and direct way it speaks to kids about the important issues of the day. In 2005, it won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming for its show, From the Holocaust to the Sudan. In 1994, the entire series, Nick News, won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming. In 1998, "What Are You Staring At?" a program about kids with physical disabilities, won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming. In 2002, "Faces of Hope: The Kids of Afghanistan," won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming. In 2004, two Nick News Specials, "The Courage to Live: Kids, South Africa and AIDS" and "There's No Place Like Home," a special about homeless kids in America, were both nominated for the Outstanding Children's Programming Emmy. In fact, Nick News has received more than 20 Emmy nominations. Nick News, produced by Lucky Duck Productions, is also the recipient of two Peabody Awards, including a personal one given to Ellerbee for her coverage, for kids, of the President Clinton investigation; a Columbia duPont Award; and more than a dozen Parents' Choice Awards.

Nickelodeon, in its 27th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in more than 90 million households and has been the number- one-rated basic cable network for more than ten consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA)(NYSE:VIA.B).

Source: Nickelodeon

CONTACT: Joanna Roses, +1-212-846-7326, or Thamar Romero,
+1-212-846-7491, both of Nickelodeon

Web site: http://www.nick.com/

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