SEATTLE — Red Nose Day is a colorful, hard-to-miss campaign that’s raised hundreds of millions of dollars to support vulnerable kids across the world.
NBC is supporting the Red Nose Campaign for the ninth year as the effort raises life-changing funds to help end the cycle of poverty and ensure children are safe, healthy, educated and empowered.
Red Nose Day started in 1985 when Comic Relief responded to a famine that was impacting Ethiopia. The idea was simply to get comedians together to make people laugh while raising support for people in need around the world.
In 2015, America launched it’s own official Red Nose Day. The campaign and has raised more than $324 million and impacted more than 31 million children.
The Red Nose is a fun way to show support for the campaign and some local organizations thank you in advance for your donations. All of the money raised goes to the Red Nose Day Fund and select organizations receive grants.
The Northwest is home to several organizations that receive financial support from Red Nose Day and one of them has been silently working away with some local schools.
City Year is is an education nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students and schools succeed. The nonprofit deploys diverse teams of AmeriCorps members to work full time alongside teachers in public schools. The AmeriCorp members are in the classrooms five days a week to develop positive relationships with students that strengthen academic and social-emotional skills that drive success in school, work and life. This is especially valuable for students in systemically under-resourced schools.
City Year Executive Director Tarra Mitchell said they have more than 80 AmeriCorps members serving in eight partner schools to provide tutoring, mentoring and accountability to ensure students are ready for college and career success.
“The money we receive from Red Nose Day is vital to the work we do every single day in these schools and it’s paying off.” said Mitchell.
A study showed that schools that partner with City Year were up to two to three times more likely to improve on math and English assessments. City Year is currently serving more than 3,700 students in partner school in Seattle.