{"id":14902,"date":"2018-11-19T10:38:31","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T18:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/?p=14902"},"modified":"2018-11-19T11:18:46","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T19:18:46","slug":"ed-asner-birthday-wanda-sykes-a-night-of-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/2018\/11\/19\/ed-asner-birthday-wanda-sykes-a-night-of-dreams\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Asner Celebrated His 89th Birthday With a Sold-Out Benefit For Families Affected by Autism and Special Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Ed Asner<\/strong> celebrated his <strong>89<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0birthday<\/strong> with a benefit to help the autistic and special needs communities, fulfilling his passionate commitment. Joining him were 500 celebrities, industry influencers and autism advocates attending the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.edasnerfamilycenter.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ed Asner Family Center<\/a> first annual\u00a0<b>A NIGHT OF DREAMS<\/b>\u00a0Gala, a night of music and philanthropy to raise funds to help families affected by Autism, Down Syndrome and other special needs, on\u00a0<span class=\"xn-chron\">November 15, 2018<\/span>\u00a0at the Exchange LA Downtown. \u00a0Hosted by Emmy-winning comedian\u00a0<b><span class=\"xn-person\">Wanda Sykes<\/span><\/b>, this enthusiastic evening&#8217;s headline attraction was a special set by Grammy Award-winning music legend\u00a0<b>Peter Frampto<\/b><b>n<\/b>\u00a0along with a performance by\u00a0<b><span class=\"xn-person\">Naia Izumi<\/span><\/b>, NPR&#8217;s 2018 Tiny Desk Contest Winner, raising over\u00a0<span class=\"xn-money\">$250,000.00<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Autism and special needs including Down Syndrome, developmental delays, Cerebral Palsy among others, touches all of us personally. \u00a0Our honorees,\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Ed Asner<\/span>,\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Art Smith<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Elaine Frontain-Bryant<\/span>, each in their own unique way, are champions for their dedication for changing the world for differently-abled\u00a0individuals and the special needs&#8217; communities. We are so proud to honor and celebrate them,&#8221; said\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Matthew Asner<\/span>, President of the Ed Asner Family Center.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/2018\/11\/19\/ed-asner-birthday-wanda-sykes-a-night-of-dreams\/screen-shot-2018-11-19-at-10-36-06-am\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14903\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-14903\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-19-at-10.36.06-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"594\" height=\"407\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s fight for our children to shine the way they are meant to shine,&#8221; said legendary Emmy\u00ae-winning actor\u00a0<b><span class=\"xn-person\">Ed Asner<\/span>\u00a0<\/b>as he received a\u00a0<i>DreamMaker<\/i>\u00a0Award, presented by actor<b>\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Michael Shannon<\/span>\u00a0<\/b>(<i>Midnight Special,\u00a0The Shape of Water, Nocturnal Animals<\/i>). The evening spotlighted Asner&#8217;s tireless efforts to create\u00a0<i>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.edasnerfamilycenter.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ed Asner Family Center<\/a><\/i>\u00a0founded by his son Matt and daughter-in-law\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Navah Paskowitz-Asner<\/span>.\u00a0 A longtime advocate for those on the autistic spectrum, Asner personally understands the challenges that Special Needs families face with his own autistic son and grandson, and the healing power of a creative, loving environment.<\/p>\n<p>World renowned celebrity chef\u00a0<b><span class=\"xn-person\">Art Smith<\/span>\u00a0<\/b>received his Dream Maker Award from\u00a0presenter\u00a0Emmy\u00ae-nominated Actress\u00a0<b><span class=\"xn-person\">Angela Bassett<\/span><\/b>\u00a0(<i>Black Panther, American Horror Story, Master of None<\/i>). Smith, best known as Oprah&#8217;s chef for over 20 years and for his restaurants including Artbird, Homecomin&#8217; and Southern Art, accepted the\u00a0<i>DreamMaker<\/i>\u00a0Award for his charitable contributions and commitment to children.\u00a0 He is the founder of Common Thread, a non-profit organization teaching low-income families to cook wholesome and affordable meals for over 12 years. It has morphed into a free healthy cooking program that has reached over 125,000 children.\u00a0In addition, Smith and his talented team will be showcasing their signature recipes as the chef of\u00a0<i>A Night of Dreams\u00a0<\/i>Gala preparing the menu and delicacies for the evening.<\/p>\n<p>Emmy-winner\u00a0<b><span class=\"xn-person\">Elaine Frontain Bryant<\/span>,<\/b>\u00a0Executive Vice President and Head of Programming for A&amp;E Network, was also bestowed with a Dream Maker Award, presented by producer\u00a0<b><span class=\"xn-person\">Jonathan Murray<\/span><\/b>(<i>Project Runway, Born This Way<\/i>). She is a champion of an inclusive\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">Hollywood<\/span>. Her work on\u00a0<i>Born This Way<\/i>\u00a0and other A&amp;E series that feature differently abled individuals deserves to be recognized.\u00a0Under Frontain Bryant, A&amp;E has developed a critically acclaimed nonfiction programming slate, garnering back-to-back Emmy Awards. Frontain Bryant launched the 2017 Emmy Award winner\u00a0<i><span class=\"xn-person\">Leah Remini<\/span>: Scientology and the Aftermath<\/i>, and the 2016 Emmy Award winner and recipient of a Television Academy Honors,\u00a0<i>Born This Way<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>The evening kicked off with\u00a0<b>Chef\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Art Smith<\/span><\/b>\u00a0preparing his famous fried chicken and hummingbird cake dinner family style for the main floor guests. \u00a0<b>J<\/b><b>oan&#8217;s on 3rd<\/b>\u00a0provided delicious platters for the mezzanine seating.\u00a0 The program also offered an exclusive silent and live auction, as well as a spirited \u00a0&#8220;Fund-A-Mission&#8221; auction where guests had the opportunity to support special\u00a0<i>The\u00a0<\/i><i>Ed Asner Family Center<\/i>\u00a0initiatives including summer camp for kids with autism and other programs for the community.\u00a0\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Jill Creter-Harte<\/span>\u00a0gave a heartfelt description of parenting her autistic daughter Spencer, who found her special voice singing opera. Comic book artist\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Amy Fagan<\/span>\u00a0gave a moving description of her life with autism. The gala was produced by\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Kayleigh Millet<\/span>, Vice President of the center.<\/p>\n<p>The Ed Asner Family Center is dedicated to promoting self-confidence in differently &#8220;abled&#8221; individuals, bringing balance and wellness to them and their families. The Center not only caters to the needs of the special child but aims to engage the whole family in order to help them face their unique challenges.\u00a0\u00a0 For Information\u00a0<i>The Ed Asner Family Center<\/i>, contact\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Navah Paskowitz-Asner<\/span><a href=\"mailto:Navah@edasnerfamilycenter.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Navah@edasnerfamilycenter.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><i>A Night of Dreams Gala<\/i>\u00a0is generously sponsored by Plush Beds, Megalo Media, Big Fish Media, Lucky 8 TV, Ireland Family Foundation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, OrigProd, Netflix, CBS, Renegade, IPC Television LLC,\u00a0Newman Aaronson and Vanaman,\u00a0Sprouts, Wolcott Architects and\u00a0Haworth.\u00a0In-Kind sponsors include Gibson Foundation, Sprouts,\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Oro Imperial Tequila<\/span>, Southwest Airlines,\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Toki Doki<\/span>, Cobrum Estates Olive Oil, Custom Comforts Mattress, Braemar Country Club, Glorious Pies, Retrove Skin Care and Lavender Blue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ed Asner celebrated his 89th\u00a0birthday with a benefit to help the autistic and special needs communities, fulfilling his passionate commitment. Joining him were 500 celebrities, industry influencers and autism advocates attending the\u00a0Ed Asner Family Center first annual\u00a0A NIGHT OF DREAMS\u00a0Gala, a night of music and philanthropy to raise funds to help families affected by Autism, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-charity","7":"category-do"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ed Asner Celebrated His 89th Birthday With a Sold-Out Benefit For Families Affected by Autism and Special Needs - Daily Ovation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/2018\/11\/19\/ed-asner-birthday-wanda-sykes-a-night-of-dreams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ed Asner Celebrated His 89th Birthday With a Sold-Out Benefit For Families Affected by Autism and Special Needs - Daily Ovation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ed Asner celebrated his 89th\u00a0birthday with a benefit to help the autistic and special needs communities, fulfilling his passionate commitment. Joining him were 500 celebrities, industry influencers and autism advocates attending the\u00a0Ed Asner Family Center first annual\u00a0A NIGHT OF DREAMS\u00a0Gala, a night of music and philanthropy to raise funds to help families affected by Autism, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/2018\/11\/19\/ed-asner-birthday-wanda-sykes-a-night-of-dreams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daily Ovation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-19T18:38:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-11-19T19:18:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-19-at-10.33.13-AM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"538\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"377\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robby Moore\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Robby Moore\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/2018\/11\/19\/ed-asner-birthday-wanda-sykes-a-night-of-dreams\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/2018\/11\/19\/ed-asner-birthday-wanda-sykes-a-night-of-dreams\/\",\"name\":\"Ed Asner Celebrated His 89th Birthday With a Sold-Out Benefit For Families Affected by Autism and Special Needs - Daily Ovation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/2018\/11\/19\/ed-asner-birthday-wanda-sykes-a-night-of-dreams\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/2018\/11\/19\/ed-asner-birthday-wanda-sykes-a-night-of-dreams\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-19-at-10.36.06-AM.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-19T18:38:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-11-19T19:18:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8df1902e807dd20c2f6332fc00b99d2b\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/2018\/11\/19\/ed-asner-birthday-wanda-sykes-a-night-of-dreams\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/2018\/11\/19\/ed-asner-birthday-wanda-sykes-a-night-of-dreams\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-19-at-10.36.06-AM.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-19-at-10.36.06-AM.png\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/\",\"name\":\"Daily Ovation Los Angeles best restaurants, bars, concerts, wine, cocktails\",\"description\":\"Los Angeles Best Restaurants, Bars, Travel, Vacations\",\"alternateName\":\"Los Angeles Restaurant reviews, bars, wine, cocktails, concert reviews\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8df1902e807dd20c2f6332fc00b99d2b\",\"name\":\"Robby Moore\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/author\/robbymoore\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ed Asner Celebrated His 89th Birthday With a Sold-Out Benefit For Families Affected by Autism and Special Needs - Daily Ovation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/2018\/11\/19\/ed-asner-birthday-wanda-sykes-a-night-of-dreams\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ed Asner Celebrated His 89th Birthday With a Sold-Out Benefit For Families Affected by Autism and Special Needs - Daily Ovation","og_description":"Ed Asner celebrated his 89th\u00a0birthday with a benefit to help the autistic and special needs communities, fulfilling his passionate commitment. 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