Freedom Awards Benefit Is a Festive
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Benefitting ECPAT-USA June 15, 2021 “It is with great pleasure and gratitude that ECPAT-USA welcomes you to our 2021 Freedom Awards. This annual event is a special one, giving us the opportunity to honor leaders who are committed to ending child sex trafficking and exploitation and to highlight ECPAT-USA's child protection programs. While we hope that we can celebrate in person next year, we are excited that you are joining us virtually tonight. Thank you for your continued support of ECPAT-USA's mission to build a world in which no child is bought, sold, or used for sex.” Hosted by Cheryl Wills, NY1 Anchor and Author 5:45 p.m. VIP Reception Cello Performance Sharon Appelman, ECPAT-USA Board of Directors Welcome Lori Cohen, CEO of ECPAT-USA Reading From Her Upcoming Novel, "Carnival Lights" Christine Stark, ECPAT-USA Survivors' Council Artist Mykel Vaughn 6 p.m. General Admission The Year of ECPAT-USA Freedom Award Presentation Recipient: Chip Rogers, President & CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association Defender Award Presentation Recipient: Rose Muckenthaler, NYPD/FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force Special Performance - The Resistance Revival Chorus Survivor Advocate Award Presentation Recipient: Tina Frundt, Founder and Executive Director of Courtney's House HOST CHERYL WILLS NY1 NEWS ANCHOR & AUTHOR C Cheryl Wills is a veteran anchor for Spectrum News NY1. She joined the cable network during its launch in 1992. She is the primetime anchor for NY1 Live at Ten H and she’s also the host of the public affairs talk show "In Focus with Cheryl Wills." E In 2018, Cheryl became the first African-American reporter in NY1’s history to win R an Emmy Award. Y The award-winning journalist is the author of three books about her great-great- L great-grandfather Sandy Wills who fought in The Civil War. She is currently working on a groundbreaking book called "25 Women Who Changed Gospel." W I Cheryl has interviewed some of the most powerful people in the world including L the first woman president of Africa: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia. Her L groundbreaking report earned her a prestigious medal from United Nations S Correspondents Association. She also scored an exclusive interview with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. Her personal favorite was going one-on- B one with the late, great writer and activist Maya Angelou. I O In March of 2018, Cheryl was honored with the prestigious Commander’s Medal from the U.S. Department of the Army: The Public Service Commendation Medal is the fourth-highest public service decoration the United States Department of the Army can bestow upon a civilian. She has also received awards from The New York Press Club, The Newswomen's Club of NY Front Page Award, and The Associated Press. In 2017, The Association of Social Studies Teachers I UFT awarded Cheryl The Rosa Parks Award for Social Justice for "illuminating the struggle for Black equality from The Civil War to present." In 2017, Cheryl also received the Dr. Martin Luther King Award from three prominent Jewish organizations at The Israeli Consulate for bridging the gap between African Americans and Jews. In 2017, City & State Magazine honored Cheryl as one of New York’s most remarkable women. McDonald's honored her in 2015 with the first-ever, Harold Dow Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of extraordinary and unparalleled contributions to broadcast media. She was the first journalist invited to address the General Assembly of The United Nations about the impact of slavery on her family during the UN's International Remembrance of Victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Cheryl takes great pride in being the Founder and Commander of The New York State Chapter of the Sons & Daughters of the United States Colored Troops, a national organization based in Washington D.C. She enjoys teaching students about the contributions of the 200,000 black soldiers who fought valiantly during The Civil War. Cheryl is a graduate of The Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, with a major in Broadcast Journalism. She received an Honorary Doctorate from New York College of Health Professions in May of 2005. FREEDOM AWARD RECIPIENT CHIP ROGERS PRESIDENT & CEO OF THE AMERICAN HOTEL & LODGING ASSOCIATION C H I P Chip Rogers joined the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) as President and CEO in January 2019. AHLA is America’s only national association dedicated R to serving the interests of the entire hotel and lodging industry. O In his role as President & CEO, Chip has led the AHLA team and the lodging G industry to achieve tangible results for AHLA members. Subsequently, he has E received numerous awards and has been recognized as one of the 25 most R influential by Business Travel News, as one of the most influential people in Washington D.C. by Washingtonian magazine, Top 50 Most Influential Leaders in S Hospitality, USA, and Global by Hospitality Index, and twice as a top lobbyist by the Hill newspaper. B I O Under Chip’s leadership, AHLA was named as “100 Associations That Will Save the World” by ASAE, was honored with the White House “Presidential Award for its Pledge to America’s Workers” and was recognized with the PR Week Purpose Awards 2020. In addition to leading AHLA, Chip is a member of the board of directors for the United States Travel Association, Community Leaders of America, and the California Hotel & Lodging Association. Prior to joining the hospitality industry, Chip served in the Georgia General Assembly. He was elected to office six times and was unanimously elected twice to serve as Senate majority leader. Chip earned his undergraduate degree from Georgia Tech and his MBA from Georgia State. DEFENDER AWARD RECIPIENT ROSE MUCKENTHALER NYPD/FBI CHILD EXPLOITATION AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING TASK FORCE R O S Rosemarie Muckenthaler has been a part of the New York Police Department for E 23 years and has worked with trafficking victims for 20 years. She has recovered M hundreds of missing children who were trafficked in New York City and has helped put away traffickers on both the state and federal levels. U Rose started as a patrol officer in the South Bronx and joined the Vice C Enforcement Division in the summer of 2000. It was there that she started K encountering victims who were forced into prostitution, at a time when the voices E of children of trafficking were not heard but instead were put into the system. She worked undercover from 2000-2006, walking the tracks of New York City in heels N for hours, an experience she says helped her start to understand the pain, both T literally and figuratively, of trafficking victims. H Rose's passion for working on trafficking cases comes from her belief that the A voices of survivors need to be heard. She has kept in contact with many of the L trafficking victims she has encountered over the years - her girls as she calls them. E Recently, a female named Silky King, whose case Rose had worked on when Silky R King was 13 years old, contacted her for the first time in years. Silky King is now 31, and the two shared a tearful reunion. B Rose's dedication to her girls knows no bounds. Recently, one called her crying I O because she didn't have any clothes for an upcoming job interview at a McDonald's in Queens. Rose went through her personal closet and found the perfect suit for her to wear for the interview - which resulted in a job offer. She was also the first female in the Vice Enforcement division to get a first grade in the history of the NYPD and was deemed a Human Trafficking expert by Honorable Judge Peter Velone. SURVIVOR ADVOCATE AWARD RECIPIENT TINA FRUNDT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/FOUNDER COURTNEY’S HOUSE T I N A F R U Tina Frundt has been actively raising awareness of the commercial sexual N exploitation of children (CSEC) since 2000. A high-profile national advocate on the D issue of domestic sex trafficking and a survivor of CSEC, Ms. Frundt is deeply committed to helping other children and youth, who are living through experiences T similar to her own. She has been featured on numerous national shows and B publications, including the OWN Network’s Our America with Lisa Ling: 3AM Girls, which featured an undercover look into sex trafficking in Washington, DC, the CNN I O Freedom Project, and in 2016 the Whitney Young Unsung Heroes award by the Urban Institute. In 2010, she became the first U.S. citizen to receive the Free the Slaves Freedom Awards-Frederick Douglas Award, which recognizes survivors of sex trafficking who use their life in freedom to help others. In 2016 she was appointed by President Obama to the First White House Survivor Advisory Board. Ms. Frundt trains law enforcement and other non-profit groups, and is also a member of the Washington, D.C., State of Maryland, and Prince Georges County Anti-Trafficking Task Force, she was also appointed by the Governor of Maryland to the Safe Harbor Working group. She has testified before the U.S. Congress about her own experiences and the need for greater protection and services for trafficked persons. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Courtney's House, which provides direct services for domestic sex trafficked males and females ages 11 – 24 yrs in the Washington D.C. metro area. Since its inception, Courtney's House and Ms. Frundt have helped over 2,000 survivors get out of their trafficking situation.