Sweet Readers STAND BY ME Event
Connects Generations in Central Park
Immersive, Interactive Village Experience Empowers
Human Connection through Neuroscience and The Arts
New York, NY (April 26, 2022) – On Tuesday, May 3, 2022, Sweet Readers, a public charity that connects trained middle school students and isolated older adults will hold its first public event since the pandemic – “STAND BY ME” – transforming the area in and around Central Park’s Naumburg Bandshell into an immersive, theatrical, community building village.
From 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., students, older adults, and their families across four generations, along with educators, healthcare experts, artists, supporters and special guests will come together, connecting through collaborative music, art, poetry, and an interactive exploration of brain functions and mental health.
The event is an enactment of Sweet Readers’ Mission which empowers youth to engage older adults living with dementia and become catalysts for eldercare excellence through arts and science based programming and compelling public events.
“We are thrilled to be hosting STAND BY ME, our first public event after three especially challenging winters and to be re-bridging communities that have been further and drastically segmented during the pandemic” noted Sweet Reader’s Co-Founder, Karen Young. “Coinciding beautifully with Mental Health Awareness Month and the blooming of Central Park, our communities can finally be together and in person to learn, celebrate resilience and joy, promote wellness, and rediscover each other.”
The STAND BY ME Village at the Naumberg Bandshell will showcase 3 elements:
Bandshell Immersions
Bandshell Immersions will feature: the Sweet Readers Memory Singers, the first international, intergenerational, immersive chorus to include adults with Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia and their care partners; Sweet Readings, a youth led, interactive live podcast with medical and community building experts discussing the value and impact of community on the brain and mental health; and Drum + Poetry Circles led by theater and music specialists;
Featured Medical experts include: Gayatri Devi, MD, MS, FAAN, Clinical Professor of Neurology, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and Director, Park Avenue Neurology; and Georges Naasan, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology, Medical Director for the division of Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry, Co-Medical Director of the Barbara and Maurice Deane Center for Wellness and Cognitive Health, and Vice Chair of Ambulatory Operations and Quality for the Department of Neurology, Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Central Park’s Naumburg Bandshell
Discovery Circle
The Discovery Circle, in the Village center, a 14 piece learning installation will immerse visitors in brain functioning and creative ways to protect and nourish your brain!
Above: Rendering of the interactive Stand By Me Village which will immerse visitors in science and the arts.
Interactive Stations
Four Interactive Stations will inspire visitors to engage, collaborate and discover each other through thoughtful poetry, mobile making, portraiture and a community mural.
Above: Rendering of the interactive Stand By Me Village which will immerse visitors in science and the arts.
Watch the 2-minute sizzle reel.
About Sweet Readers
Founded in Manhattan in 2011 by a 5th grader, her mother and grandmother, Sweet Readers is a 501(c)3 public charity that connects trained middle school students (called Sweet Readers) and isolated older adults, many with Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia, through the arts.
Sweet Readers’ mission is to empower young people to revitalize isolated older adults and become catalysts for eldercare excellence through interactive programs and compelling public events.
During in-school and after school programs, participants explore and create art, music, poetry, movement and stories as they discover each other and create lasting bonds. The programs utilize the award winning Sweet Readers Method of Creative Human Connection and are facilitated by trained facilitators: art educators, middle school teachers and the charity’s Young Leaders.
Sweet Readers partners with schools, eldercare centers, hospitals and major museums to build communities around the transformative engagement between the Sweet Readers and their older adult partners.
Sweet Readers’ partners, a network of over 200 diverse schools and eldercare centers and over a dozen major museums, hospitals and community centers, include: Berkeley Carroll School, Brearley, Chapin, De La Salle Academy, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, the LAB School, Nightingale-Bamford School, Sisulu-Walker Charter School, Spence, Stephen Gaynor, Trinity, TYWLS Bronx, 80th Street Residence, Atria Senior Living the New Jewish Home, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, American Folk Art Museum, American Museum of Natural History, Jewish Museum, MoMA, New York Historical Society, Studio Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Whitney Museum.
The Sweet Readers Leadership Council, for select high school students, Sweet Readers alumni, was formed in 2015 with the mission to empower youth to build Sweet Readers communities and educate the public about Alzheimer’s, social interaction, brain health and the value of multigenerational engagement.
Sweet Readers has bridged over 50 communities in 11 states, 3 countries and four NYC boroughs serving over 40,000 participants and with the help of its Leadership Council, has raised awareness about Alzheimer’s and Brain Health in all fifty states and 71 countries.
Karen Young
Karen Young is an American entrepreneur and social activist who is the co-founder and CEO of Sweet Readers, Inc., a 501(c)3 purposeful organization.
Ms. Young co-founded Sweet Readers with her mother and daughter in 2011 in Manhattan. Sweet Readers trains middle school students to discover older adults through immersive arts & science based programs. The award-winning Sweet Readers Method of Creative Human Engagement empowers young people to revitalize isolated adults in need and become catalysts for eldercare excellence. In the process, older adults inspire young people to become adaptable and creative problem solvers, community builders and agents of change.
In 1992, Ms. Young founded TLI Games whose award-winning educational board games were distributed worldwide through Toys R Us, Barnes & Noble, QVC, Amazon.com, F.A.O. Schwarz and numerous game, museum and stationery stores. The New York Times called Karen "The Gamemaker with Unsinkable Spirit".
Prior to TLI Games, Ms. Young was a commercial real estate broker, responsible for leasing and management of MetLife’s Manhattan office buildings. Ms. Young was also responsible for the conversion of the Bowery Savings Bank Building at 110 East 42nd Street.
Ms. Young has over 45 years of service experience including in The U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Business Liaison, The White House Office of Public Liaison, co-chair of The Toy Manufacturers of America's Toy Bank for which she secured millions of dollars in toy donations from her peers, co-chair of Community Service at The Spence School in Manhattan, head of community service at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, NY and at Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, New York where Ms. Young is on their permanent honor roll for her work with handicapped children during Ms. Young’s middle school years.
Ms. Young is a frequent speaker on business and entrepreneurial subjects and has been featured at NYU's Stern School of Business; IBM's Marketing Conference and The American Express Panel of Women in Business. Ms. Young has been featured on CNN, CNBC, Good Morning America, NY1 News, in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, New York Magazine and The New Yorker. In 2018, Ms. Young was selected to be an AARP Purpose Prize Fellow for her work with Sweet Readers.
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