In This Season of Thanksgiving Sesame Street Introduces Lily and Modern Family’s Nolan Gould discusses The Heart of a True Volunteer

Sesame Street does not only teach kids about letters and numbers. It has always been about helping children learn about life and being a good person.

There is always something new joining the familiar and this keeps it both enduring and fresh – capturing our hearts and imagination.

Now Sesame Street has a new initiative, Growing Hope Against Hunger, and has introduced a new character – Lily – a child whose family is insecure about food. This can be a difficult subject to introduce to young children but Sesame Street has done this in a very sensitive way. And just as children of different cultural backgrounds should see themselves when watching TV so should children whose family may live with financial insecurity every day. Lily was introduced in a PBS prime time special this Fall and you can see the hour long special here. The special, hosted by Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams Paisley, is an excellent introduction for young children to the larger world around them.

Last week Nolan Gould who plays Luke Dunphy (the cute kid) on Modern Family joined the muppet, Murray, at the Los Angeles Food Bank and learns what it means to be a “volunteer.” It is never too SOON to learn about volunteering.

Click here to watch this very short video with Nolan and Murray volunteering.

My grandson is only two and a half but he enjoys watching short videos with his grandmother. We watched this one together this afternoon and he was very intent as he wanted to see it several times. I explained that the word volunteer means to help others and that's what Murray and Nolan were doing. And as he gets older we’ll expand that understanding.

There are many things that I look forward to doing with Zach. Volunteering is on my list. It has been an important part of my life and I hope it will be for him too.