August 8, 2007
Flushing, New York - The New York Mets, Sesame Street and New Balance today announced the first “Mets Shoelace Day at Shea” on August 9 at 12:10 p.m. The first 12,000 kids ages 12 and under attending the Mets-Braves game will receive a pair of New Balance orange and blue shoelaces.
Healthy Habits will be the theme of the event at Shea Stadium. Young Mets fans will also get tips on being healthy and active and walkaround Cookie Monster, Elmo, and New Balance’s Giant Sneaker will stroll through the stands with Mr. Met. To add to the fun, Fisher-Price® will give away a limited number of the new Singing Pizza Elmo toys to lucky fans during the game.
This special event is an extension of the partnership between New Balance, a leading manufacturer of performance footwear, and Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, as part of the Healthy Habits for Life program.
"As a proud sponsor of Sesame Street, New Balance encourages kids and parents to lead healthy and active lifestyles," says Paul Heffernan, Executive Vice President, Global Marketing, Design & Development. "This is a fun opportunity to highlight an important message to kids through America's favorite summer past-time - baseball."
“Sesame Street is all about bringing fun and learning together and what better way then to bring Healthy Habits to life then participating in a Mets game,” said, Anita Stewart, Vice President, Corporate Sponsorship for Sesame Workshop. “We are thrilled to help our children learn more about physical activity and health through our continuing partnership with New Balance.”
Featuring a coalition of partners and an advisory board of health, nutrition, fitness and child development experts, Healthy Habits for Life was created to develop and distribute multi-media, age-appropriate content. The initiative was launched in 2004 to use the reach of Sesame Street to educate kids about nutrition and active play, making the basics of health and well-being as much a part of early development as learning to read and write. New Balance is a proud sponsor of Sesame Street and Healthy Habits, as well as the related traveling exhibition, Sesame Street Presents: The Body. For more than 30 years, New Balance has been dedicated to making kids shoes in a variety of sizes, widths and colors to ensure that every growing child can find their perfect fit.
For more information about the Healthy Habits for Life program, visit www.sesameworkshop.org/healthyhabits.
For more information or to purchase tickets call 718-507-TIXX or visit Mets.com or LosMets.com.
About New Balance
New Balance, headquartered in Boston, MA, is a leading manufacturer of technologically innovative width-sized performance footwear and athletic apparel for women, men and children. The range of product categories in includes running, walking, training, basketball, tennis, cleated and kids. New Balance employs more than 2,800 people around the globe and in 2005 reported worldwide sales of $1.54 billion. For more information visit http://www.newbalance.com
About Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization that changed television forever with the legendary Sesame Street. As the single largest informal educator of young children, local Sesame Street programs produced in countries as diverse as South Africa, Bangladesh and India are making a difference in over 120 nations. Using proprietary research to create engaging and enriching content, Sesame Workshop produces programs such as Dragon Tales and Pinky Dinky Doo. In addition, multimedia needs-driven initiatives provide families tools for addressing such issues as children’s health, military deployment and emergency preparedness. As a nonprofit, product proceeds and philanthropic support endow Sesame Workshop’s educational research and creative content for children around the world. Learn more at www.sesameworkshop.org.
###
For more information contact:
Jay Horwitz, Vice President, Media Relations
New York Mets
718-565-4330; jhorw@nymets.com
Pam Hacker
Sesame Workshop
212-875-6225; pam.hacker@sesameworkshop.org
Amy Vreeland
New Balance
617/746-2214; Amy.Vreeland@newbalance.com
