I don’t know about you but I was still at school when Britain had their first Red Nose Day telethon in 1988 as part of the annual Comic Relief fundraising efforts, which itself had only been launched three years earlier by comedian Lenny Henry and comedy writer Richard Curtis. As I recall, we were asked to make a donation of 50p and in return we were allowed to attend in ‘non uniform’ and wear a Comic Relief red nose. I remember laughing hysterically at my younger sister Marya, who was confident enough to wear a silly costume and her red nose on the bus to school. I was secretly quite envious that I didn’t have the courage to put mine on until I had safely passed the school gates.
But I did embrace this lovely new traditional whole heartedly in the following years. The goal of using comedy to raise money for charity was quite groundbreaking at the time. I am sure there was the occasional fun run, and I participated in plenty of sponsored swims, but overall I don’t recall being encouraged to have a laugh whilst helping those in need.
So I was very excited when Red Nose Day launched in the USA back in 2015, but I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t cross paths with random strangers wearing the novelty clown nose. To be fair I wasn’t wearing one either; but this year I will! There is still time to get your nose on, as Red Nose Day is on Thursday, May 25th. Our friends from the British Consulate, including our new Deputy Consul General, Colette Weston are obviously game for a laugh. They all showed up for our Tuesday Breakfast Club this week wearing their red noses.
Got Red Nose envy? You can pick up yours at Walgreens or Duane Read drugstores and make sure to tune in to NBC for the Comic Relief telethon on Thursday. You can also use the NBC app to add one to any photo, which youc an find at nbc.com/rednosedayapp. You can also visit rednoseme.com to do the same thing. If you’d like to get further involved, visit rednoseday.org or details. There’s plenty of things to do and enjoy, and for fans of the Richard Curtis rom-com Love Actually, you can donate for a chance to have tea with the cast in London! You can also create your own fundraiser through Facebook as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation are matching up to $1 million dollars for funds raised through the social media platform.
Finally, please make sure to send us your pictures or tag us on social media @BritsinLA so we can share with everyone. Use the hashtag: #RedNoseDay
Don’t forget that the mission of this worthy event is to help end child poverty, so please make sure to be considerate of that when you post your photos!
Cheers
Eileen
