2017 Sesame Street/USO Experience Kicks Off this Month

The 2017 Sesame Street/USO Experience for Military Families is launching this month, set to visit 19 military bases in six countries across Europe.

The Sesame Street/USO Experience for Military Families will perform more than 30 shows, with each half-hour performance covering the challenges military families face regularly, including frequent moves and transitioning from military to civilian life through the character Katie, who comes from a military family. The tour will kick off on September 11 at NAS Sigonella in Italy and will also travel to Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the U.K. and Spain before wrapping in mid-November.

The Sesame Street/USO Experience for Military Families has toured the globe since July 2008, making it the longest-running traveling tour in the USO’s 76-year history. Based on Sesame Workshop’s award-winning Sesame Street for Military Families initiative, the tour has performed more than 1,100 shows on 150 military installations in 33 states and 11 countries, and distributed more than 2.8 million outreach materials, entertaining nearly 600,000 service members and military families.

“Since 2006, the Sesame Street/USO tour has brought to life the resources we’ve developed to help military families navigate the unique challenges they face,” said Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop’s senior VP of U.S. Social Impact. “Sesame Workshop is proud to continue our longstanding partnership with the USO, employing our early childhood expertise and beloved Sesame Street characters to support and celebrate military kids and families as they learn, heal and grow.”

“There is no better time to kick off our ninth-year run of the Sesame Street/USO tour than on Patriot Day—a day the USO is encouraging Americans everywhere to connect with service members by sending them a message of support at uso.org/Reect,” said Lorie Hennessey, USO’s senior VP of entertainment. “We are incredibly grateful for our collaboration with Sesame Workshop and look forward to supporting hundreds more military families this year.”