Ann Nyberg to host inaugural Celebrity Paddington Storytime

Encouraging kids to help neighbors in need this spring

338Hartford — This Saturday, May 7th, 2016, the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness will hold its inaugural Celebrity Paddington Storytime with guest Ann Nyberg. The event will take place at the Hartford Public Library Main Branch at 1 pm. Families in attendance will be able to take photos on the red carpet with Ms. Nyberg and Paddington.

A literacy-based event, Ms. Nyberg’s reading will offer our littlest residents an opportunity to reflect on Paddington’s experience with homelessness and learn  about ways they can take action to help families facing homelessness this summer. Summer is the time when family homelessness peaks in Connecticut.

CCEH launched Celebrity Paddington Storytimes to promote the new Help End Homelessness with Paddington site (www.crowdrise.com/behomeful), which gives kids, families, and communities a platform to share their stories online and ask others to join them in lending a hand. CCEH is seeking kids, families, and communities to hold drives to sponsor families in need between Mother’s and Father’s Day through the be homeful fund. The fund provides resources that case workers can access when assisting families at the front door of shelter. CCEH is seeking 1000 “Paddington Ambassadors” to volunteer to hold drives for the fund— one for every family in Connecticut that will become homeless this year.

This very special Paddington Storytime marks the beginning of a partnership with WTNH News 8. News 8 team members including Ann Nyberg and Darren Kramer are holding drives on the site and are asking their fans to join their team to raise funds for local homeless families.

For information on how you can become a volunteer with, or donate to the be homeful project, visit behomeful.org or contact Madeline Ravich at mravich@cceh.org.

Paddington Bear™ © Paddington and Co Ltd/Studiocanal S.A. 2016
Licensed on behalf of Studiocanal S.A. by Copyrights Group 


About be homeful

In December 2014, the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness partnered with everyone’s favorite bear Paddington™ to launch be homeful, a campaign designed to help families on the brink of homelessness. Paddington, having experienced homelessness himself, is the perfect Ambassador to help raise awareness for this often overlooked cause. In Connecticut, there are more than 1,300 homeless families. While shelters are full, there is currently no major source of funding to keep struggling families from slipping into homelessness in times of crisis. By making funds available to keep families in the comfort of home, we can help break the cycle of homelessness that can carry forward across generations.


About Paddington

For almost 60 years, British-born writer Michael Bond has been entertaining children and families all over the world with his stories about Paddington, the bear from Darkest Peru famous for his love of marmalade. Since the first book, A Bear Called Paddington, was published by HarperCollins in 1958, a further 14 full-length novels and countless other formats have been published. Paddington’s adventures have been adapted several times for television and at the end of 2014 Paddington made his debut onto the big screen. In recognition of Paddington’s extraordinary popularity and success, Michael Bond was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) from the Queen for services to children’s literature in 1997 and a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2015.


About Ann Nyberg

Ann Nyberg is the longest-serving, full-time female news anchor/reporter in Connecticut television history. She is also WTNH-TV’s longest-serving Anchor/Reporter in station history. She anchors the 6 and 10 o’clock nightly newscasts. Ms. Nyberg has been voted “Best News Anchor” for a decade in “Connecticut Magazine’s reader’s poll, and hosts her own show which she developed to get people’s stories out to the masses in long format, it’s on air and online and it’s called “NYBERG.” Ms. Nyberg has been a story-teller her entire life and is committed to philanthropy.