Sesame Street characters bringing fun to J’can children… live
Come and play where everything’s aok, I’m on my way to where the air is sweet. Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street, how to get to Sesame Street, how to get to Sesame Street, How to get to Sesame Street? – Sesame Street theme song
MA N Y Jamaicans who grew up on television’s Sesame Street, probably never imagined their favourite furry friends – Elmo, Zoe, Bert & Ernie, Cookie Monster and Grover – would one day be within a r m’s reach.
Families wanting to find their way to Sesame Street have been doing so through a vacation at Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart’s luxurious Beaches Resorts in Jamaica and the Turks and Caicos Islands, where the friendly characters of Sesame Street have leapt off the television screen and found their way to the Caribbean to entertain children between 0 and 6 years old.
But for those not fortunate enough to get a vacation at Beaches, Sesame Street has been winding its way to Jamaican children through a community outreach programme inspired by the ATL/Sandals Group of Companies and the US-based educational organisation, Sesame W orkshop.
From Beaches Boscobel in St Mary, the Sesame Street team visits basic and primary schools, infirmaries and hospitals twice per month to, among other things, read stories, issue books and toys and entertain the children.
These visits help to enrich the educational system by creating an awareness in the children themselves; by exposing them [children] to things outside of the regular curriculum, says Kids Camp Manager at Beaches Boscobel, Esther Montaque. “It also engages the involvement of parents through parental workshops.”
At the Stewart Town Basic, one of the schools to which Boscobel has taken the Sesame Street characters, the children were, for the most part, joyful and excited to have the giant cookieeating monster in their midst. As they danced, sang, played and listened to a story with him, many of them clutched at his neck and arms, with one little girl repeating, “mi love yuh” to the monster who replied with hugs and kisses.
Class three teacher at the school, Annalease Kelly was glad for the programme, saying it helped the children learn more about the world around them.
“Because most of them are afraid…it helps them to become aware that they [characters] are puppets and will not hurt them,” she suggests.
Beaches Boscobel also takes advantage of the tourism in schools programme for older children and either visits schools to promote tourism or have groups of students visit the hotel with the same purpose.
When the Caribbean Adventures programme began in 2004, Montaque says her job became more overwhelming, but now she wouldn’t miss seeing the children enjoy themselves for the world.
“I get the chance to watch the kids get so happy and excited; they give rave reviews. They (the characters) have touched so many lives – we’ve been to schools, infirmaries, hospitals, and similar institutions and it’s amazing to see how well they (children) gravitate to the characters,” she adds.
Boscobel’s public relations manager, Denise Treasure, also has high praises for the Sesame Street programme at the hotel, saying it was a good match for the hotel chain.
“Sesame Workshop is about community development and that is in keeping with our mandate to give back to the community, which is why we try to expose the children to Sesame Street, to Boscobel and to tourism,” Treasure notes.
As for the Sandy Bay and Negril properties, the regional public relations manager for Beaches and Sandals Negril, Nathelie Taylor, says in addition to visiting schools, the hotel’s Sesame Street team also participates in events such as stagings of the Great Shape Dental programme.
That programme, which is cosponsored by Sandals International, promotes dental health among children of primary school age.
” With the Great Shape programme, we use Cookie Monster to promote healthy eating.You know he loves to eat cookies, but cookies aren’t the healthiest things so we would ask him in front of the children ‘Cookie, are cookies the only things you eat?’ and he would say no, to show them that there are healthy options,” she says.
Labelling the programme “very, very successful”, Taylor reveals that next year the hotels will be seeking to expand the number of schools they visit to be able to reach more children. Some of the schools already visited in the Hanover and Westmoreland areas are Ironshore Basic, Whitehall Prep, Negril All-age, Mount Airy All-age and the Gertie McKenzie Early Childhood Centre.
Explaining the origins of the programme, ATL Group Director of Children’s Programmes, Laura Chandley, says it was a combined effort of all the players involved.
“Mr Stewart is always looking at ways to move forward and to strengthen our position in the marketplace and Sesame Workshop was looking at breaking into the Caribbean market”, she tells the Observer.
“It has been very successful; we’ve been getting great reviews. Parents love the fact that they can come out here and see their favourite characters and they love the fact that we have put an entertainment and an educational
aspect to their vacation with their kids. So all in all, from a brand recognition and a guest recognition point of view, I’d say it’s very successful,” Chandley remarks.
“It’s worth every penny we’re paying for it,” she adds.
W ithin the hotel itself,
Caribbean Adventures offers funfilled entertainment for guests (adults included since they are often more enthusiastic than their own children about spending time with the characters) while helping to enrich the children’s experience.
The furry monsters, who have been entertaining childhood audiences from as far back as 1969, form part of the daily schedule of activities at the four Beaches properties in the Caribbean, much to the delight of fanatical guests.
Themed activities feature the life-size muppets in live shows including: “Storytime with Elmo”, “Dance with Zoe”, “Bake with Cookie Monster”, “Explore with Grover”, “Make Music with Bert & Ernie”, “Sundays at the Movies” and “Character Breakfast”, in addition to walk-around sessions with the characters.
All the activities are very popular and pull children from wherever they are on the properties. The Character Breakfast, however, tops the list and according to sales manager at Boscobel, Ruth Garnett, the two-day-per-week activity has to be extended to three days during peak seasons.
“It speaks for itself in terms of popularity,” she says, noting that many guests visit the hotel for the sole purpose of participating in the breakfast programme.
Garnett discloses that the Caribbean Adventures impacts greatly on the hotel’s sales in terms of both the number of general guests as well as the targeted age group.
One female guest at the hotel who said she and her husband chose Beaches because it was a family resort with activities for her children, says the Sesame Street programme was “definitely an asset” because her two sons, 5 and 3 years old, “like it a lot” and participated in most of the activities.
From the point of view of the animators, who have to endure the heat trapped beyond several layers of fur, the opportunity to make the children happy outweigh even the dank smells of perspiration.
For one female animator, the affection the characters receive from the children is understandable because she was just as fanatical when she was that age.
“I know what it is to love the characters, so I appreciate the love from the kids. My favourite characters growing up were Zoe, Cookie Monster, Elmo and Big Bird,” she tells the Observer, while relating a tale about a child who was visiting the hotel and whose first word – to the utter amazement of his parents – was “Elmo”.
“It’s fun and exciting [animating] because I get the chance to meet lots of new people and lots of new kids. It delights me to know that I’m able to do this; to give kids the chance to learn.”
Another animator says what he enjoys most is making the children happy, something which occurs the instant a character is spotted.
“I enjoy animating because of the smiles I put on the children’s faces,” he confesses.
The young man adds that his biggest challenge is not the suffocating heat, but rather “the different personalities of kids and their parents”.
Sesame Street currently holds captive audiences in over 120 countries around the world.