It’s time for Road Trip 2016, and the party starts with the 22nd Screen Actors Guild Awards, which will be held in Los Angeles Jan. 30.
The SAG Awards has a great bounty of nominees of color, starting with the cast of “Beasts of No Nation” and “Straight Outta Compton” in the list of top film nods, along with “The Big Short,” “Spotlight” and “Trumbo.”
Keeping it colorful and funny in the Comedy Ensemble category is the brilliant team of “Key and Peele.” “Orange Is the New Black” has multiple nominations along with “The Big Bang Theory,” “Modern Family,” “Transparent” and “Veep.”
Accolades are wonderful, but what the SAG members do best is to help others, and that assistance comes through the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. In fact, they envision a world where all artists can realize their dreams and children are empowered to create their own. The foundation is an educational, humanitarian and philanthropic 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, independent from SAG-AFTRA, and relies solely on support from grants, corporate sponsorships and individual contributions to maintain its programs. The nonprofit gives back to the professionals of SAG-AFTRA, their families and communities.
One of the many gems is a signature children’s literacy program. Thirty years strong, the foundation has granted more than $17 million in financial and medical assistance through its Catastrophic Health Fund and Emergency Assistance Programs, and $6.5 million in scholarships to SAG-AFTRA members and their dependents.
To raise funds, the SAG Awards will once again offer the Red Carpet Bleacher Seat Auction, the second in a trio of online auctions benefitting the SAG-AFTRA Foundation.
This auction is made for fans because they are able to bid on over 100 bleacher seats from which they can see their favorite stars walk the SAG Awards red carpet and have the opportunity to take pictures and request autographs during the 22nd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards arrivals Jan. 30 at the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center.
It gets better with a special VIP positioning that includes front-row seats with a terrific view of the red carpet procession and the stars interacting with the news media and fashion photographers. The auction closes Sunday, Jan. 17 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.
Kids are one of the biggest benefactors of the Red Carpet Bleacher Seats Auction, which supports the foundation’s signature children’s literacy programs BookPALS (Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools) and Storyline Online (storylineonline.net), where professional actors read to close to 6 million children in classrooms and online every month. The auction also supports the foundation’s Catastrophic Health Fund and Emergency Assistance Program for performers in need.