Yesterday was a surreal blur of network television impressions as I live-blogged and tweeted the new Katie Couric Show on ABC’s Day of Giving. The network raised $16.8 million for Sandy recovery efforts.
Whew.
Guests on the show included Jon Bon Jovi, a Jersey native, who returned from an international tour to be with his family and community on the devastated Jersey shore. His JBJ Soul Kitchen Restaurant in Red Bank New Jersey was flooded out but at another site, Soul Kitchen volunteers are preparing meals for Sandy victims.
It was interesting to learn about Bon Jovi’s Soul Kitchen, a non-profit community restaurant run by the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation. The menu has no set prices. “You select what you like and make the minimum donation. If you can afford to donate more you are helping to feed your neighbor. If you are unable to donate, an hour of volunteering pays for the meal.”
Bon Jovi is a tremendously likable and sincere guy. “I was gutted,” he said when he saw Jersey after Superstorm Sandy. “Cash is king,” he told the audience urging them to give money to relief organizations rather than “just show up not sure what you can do.” Asked whether he thought the shore would regain its former glory he said: “There are a lot of determined people in Jersey, Breezy Point, Rockaway. A tough bunch. We’ll rebuild.”
The always appealing Steve Buscemi, a Brooklyn native, was also a guest on the show. A former firefighter, Buscemi has pitched in extensively to help firefighters since 9/11. Over the weekend he went out to the Rockaways and Breezy Point where many firefighters live. “They’re great about helping others but a little shy about getting help for themselves,” he told Katie’s audience.
Also on the show was the sister, uncle and cousins of a young girl named Angela Rose who died during the storm. Her mother is in the hospital. Katie interviewed the family sensitively as they spoke about the 13-year-old Angela, “a popular and typical teenager: who loved to “stay up late and text her friends.”
A 17-year-old boy who was stranded in his house during the storm while his mother screamed for him outside managed to survive thanks to a heroic neighbor in a row boat. The hero, a man named George, was in the studio audience. “I know them since they were kids. It’s my old block. My mother lives there,” he said. e
Katie announced a long list of contributions that she personally secured from Lowe’s, Samsung and other corporations for those on the show and/or organizations they Friends of Firefighters in Red Hook.
While ABC is raising money for the Red Cross, Katie spoke honestly about her frustration over the weekend when she saw no Red Cross or FEMA when she was in Staten Island and Queens. She assured the audience that she spoke to Red Cross officials on Monday and was convinced that boots are now on the ground and that their recovery efforts are in full swing.
Asked about her emotional response to a weekend of taping segments in some of the worst hit areas Katie revealed that she often feels awkward about bringing camera crews into areas where people are suffering. “But people don’t want to be forgotten,” she told the audience. “They want their stories to be told.”
After the show I went to the Green Room where I completed a blog post about how Brooklyn rallied around those affected and united to help in the recovery efforts. Here’s that post on Katie Couric’s blog.