Set your DVRs for PBS at 8 p.m. tonight. Yes, I said tonight! At 8 p.m., tonight, April 1, PBS is airing a primetime special called, Coming Home. In honor of the Month of the Military Child, the Sesame Workshop tapped big stars, Queen Latifah, (my boyfriend,) John Mayer and Elmo to help convey some very special stories. The half hour special will share stories about service members who return home with injuries, visible and invisible, and also explore the heroic struggles their families face in discovering a new way of finding a “new normal.”
Sesame Workshop has spent the past two years creating outreach materials to help military families with young children cope with deployments, homecomings and changes. In 2007, the Workshop produced a PBS primetime special, When Parents are Deployed, with Cuba Gooding, Jr., which was honored with an Emmy nomination. Even though my dad is now retired and was thankfully kept out of harm’s way while in the service, I know firsthand about deployments and missing dear old Dad while he was out to sea. I applaud Sesame Workshop’s efforts in continuing this specific outreach to military families, specifically the many children who are directly affected in so many ways.