WETA Receives $100,000 Grant from Newman's Own Foundation

Washington, D.C. — WETA has been awarded a $100,000 grant over two years from Newman’s Own Foundation, the independent foundation created by the late actor and philanthropist, Paul Newman. The award to WETA reflects the ongoing commitment of Newman’s Own Foundation to organizations serving military service personnel, veterans, and their families. The grant allows BrainLine -- a WETA national multimedia project offering information and resources about preventing, treating, and living with traumatic brain injury -- to expand its coverage of military-specific information and resources.

“We are excited and honored to have been awarded this grant,” said Noel Gunther, vice president, Learning Media at WETA. “We created BrainLineMilitary.org — part of the BrainLine project — to disseminate authoritative information about traumatic brain injury and to create a strong community of support for service members, veterans, and their families affected by brain injury. Thanks to this grant, we will be able to offer much more information about the connection between traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, two overlapping conditions that are affecting thousands of returning service members and their families.”

Through BrainLine Military, WETA provides military-specific information about traumatic brain injury and resources to veterans; service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard, and Reserve; and their families. The Newman’s Own Foundation grant will help WETA continue with this mission. WETA’s BrainLine project, launched in 2008, has already received more than 32 national awards.

“We are proud of the men and women who have made innumerable sacrifices in service to our country,” said Robert Forrester, President of Newman’s Own Foundation. “For nearly 20 years, we have been supporting the organizations that help our nation’s troops and their families. This funding is intended to further the impact that our grantees are having in the lives of individuals and families in their time of need.”

Paul Newman established the Foundation in 2005 as a means of continuing his pledge to donate to charity all net profits and royalties from the sale of products from Newman’s Own, Inc. Since the food company’s founding in 1982, Newman and Newman’s Own Foundation have donated more than $350 million to thousands of charities worldwide.

Classical WETA and WETA Television are public broadcasting stations serving the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia with high-quality programming. As the leading PBS station in the nation’s capital, WETA Television broadcasts on four channels: WETA TV 26, WETA HD, WETA Kids and WETA UK. WETA Television productions and co-productions include PBS NewsHour, Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and Ken Burns’s films such as The Dust Bowl and upcoming documentary The Central Park Five. Embracing the educational mission of public broadcasting, WETA creates leading public service websites such as AdLit.org, BrainLine.org, ColorinColorado.org, ReadingRockets.org and LDOnLine.org. WETA’s headquarters is located in Arlington, Virginia. Sharon Percy Rockefeller is president and CEO. For more information on WETA and its services, visit weta.org.

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