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CNN Live Event/Special

18th Annual CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired December 08, 2024 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:00:35]

ANNOUNCER: From CNN Studios at Hudson Yards in New York City, this is the 18th Annual CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute.

Please welcome your host, Anderson Cooper and Laura Coates.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: And good evening and welcome to CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute. This is our 18th show.

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: We are so proud. We have an adult now, Anderson, oh my gosh, 18.

COOPER: Each year, the heroes bring us out of our worry and back into that space where hope is possible. These are people who don't often get a lot of attention. They're doing really great things like helping unaccompanied migrant kids, fostering dogs for people struggling with substance abuse, providing school uniforms in Africa and so much more.

COATES: CNN has given each of our top honorees $10,000 so they can continue their unbelievably important work. Of course, later tonight, one of the honorees will be named the 2024 CNN Hero of the Year and they'll receive an additional $100,000.

COOPER: We're so grateful to all the artists who've donated their time to salute our heroes, including Oprah Winfrey, Bradley Cooper, Pedro Pascal, and many others you'll see tonight. We thank them. Let's get started.

COATES: Well, today, nearly 129 million girls did not attend school around the world. Our next hero is determined to change that statistic. Starting in the West African country of Togo, there nearly 60% of the rural population lives on less than $2.10 a day, which means that many families can't afford to send their daughters to school.

COOPER: Tell us about our first hero's work, global media leader, Oprah Winfrey.

OPRAH WINFREY, GLOBAL MEDIA LEADER: A school uniform is more than a simple piece of clothing. In many countries, it is mandatory and it is an expense. So a dress can become a barrier to a girl's success or the key that empowers her to reach her potential.

Payton McGriff learned this as a college student after reading a book that opened her eyes to the oppression of women around the world. Payton never forgot its lessons. And in her senior year, she developed a plan to provide uniforms to girls and pitched it to a professor from Togo, a country in West Africa.

And get this, 11 days later, Payton was in that country doing field research. Now, in just seven short years, her college project became a reality. And today it is called Style Her Empowered, aka SHE.

It provides free access to education and a whole list of oppression- lifting necessities, including an ingenious design for a uniform that grows with each girl. This is what I do know for sure, and that is that education has the power to provide a sense of more than just learning opportunities. It provides dignity. It offers purpose, and in this case, a source of power.

For a movement, for opportunity, Style Her Empowered is knocking down barriers so that hope can rise in its place.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAYTON MCGRIFF, SHE FOUNDER AND CEO: I have always loved school, loved learning, especially in college. While I was in my sophomore year, I read the book Half the Sky, and that completely changed my perspective.

Poverty is a tremendous barrier to girls' education. Providing school uniforms can be one of the most cost-effective ways to keep girls in school.

The idea just stuck in my mind. When I took this entrepreneurship class, I met a professor from Togo who said, I actually like this idea. I think it could be a good fit in my hometown.

In Togo, I met with girls, and one girl in particular, Elolo, her parents could no longer afford to keep her in school.

ELOLO (through translation): My brothers wanted to go to school, so I was told to go get married and not continue my classes. It as sad for me. My intention was to go to school and become a great person.

[20:05:06]

MCGRIFF: It made all of the stories that you read in the book so real. It's very emotional. I mean, it's emotional because it's so unfair. Talent and resilience and resourcefulness is so equally distributed worldwide, but opportunity is not. And that was really what kick- started SHE.

When a girl enters our program, she receives a new school uniform, the full tuition scholarship, school supplies, a reusable menstrual kit, and year-round tutoring from our local staff.

Today, we have 1,500 girls in our program across 21 rural communities in Togo.

In addition to that, we created the uniform that grows. It grows six sizes and up to 12 inches in length. It adjusts in various parts of the body to provide a well-tailored fit. To put their uniform on for the first time, that's one of the most joyous experiences that we see.

So Elolo has now graduated high school. She has recruited thousands of girls. She is a role model for every girl in our program who can see themselves in her.

It's so girl power. It's so fun.

When you educate a girl, you educate a community.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: It is my honor to present CNN hero Payton McGriff. Congratulations.

MCGRIFF: Thank you so much.

COOPER: There you go.

MCGRIFF: Thank you.

COOPER: I love seeing the young women, the girls twirling in their uniforms. How do you run this organization? You live in Idaho. How do you do it?

MCGRIFF: Yes, we have the most incredible team of almost 40 women who lead our program in Togo now. It's so important to our mission that the girls and women we serve are empowered to lead in their own communities. So our executive director is Togolese.

We have students who have graduated the program and now lead our organization. So, I may be far in distance, but we've worked so closely together over the years to build SHE. I just feel like the luckiest person in the world to have this front row seat to watching our girls and women become these just talented and respected leaders in their own communities.

COOPER: Well, congratulations. You're doing incredible work. I hope this helps and I hope it helps you do a lot more in the years ahead. Payton, thank you so much.

MCGRIFF: Thank you.

COOPER: Laura, back to you.

COATES: Awe-inspiring. You know, last year, nearly 120,000 unaccompanied children arrived in the United States and were referred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. These are kids from Central America and Mexico fleeing violence and poverty all alone, without a parent, without a guardian, some as young as five.

But in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, our next hero makes sure these young newcomers and many others who've arrived with their families have legal representation and their other basic needs met.

Here to share our next hero story is a champion for Doctors Without Borders, actor Pedro Pascal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEDRO PASCAL, ACTOR: What makes human beings different is that we have the power of empathy to not just walk in someone else's shoes, but to still be with them in their heartache. Rachel Rutter overflows with it. As a college student, she volunteered at a community center that helped new immigrants. She served in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica and learned about the struggles in Central America.

And when she graduated from law school, she knew what she wanted to do, help the children who had just survived thousand-mile journeys on top of trains, in the back of trucks, and on foot through mountainous and muddy rainforests.

In 2015, when she learned that many of these kids lacked housing, food, mental health care, and other basic necessities, she started Project Libertad.

She provides tutoring, mentoring, language classes, college prep, and career assistance, as well as training to make sure they know their legal rights. Hundreds of kids have benefited from her work and felt her empathy.

For Rachel is more than just their lawyer. She is their advocate, their rock, their pillar of possibility, who makes sure they know they're not alone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gang members was coming to my home for money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): They killed my aunt. And they also wanted to put us out on the street.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were going to kidnap me and my sister.

RACHEL RUTTER, PROJECT LIBERTAD FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: We have kids who have had family members murdered by the gangs, sexual violence, physically abused, trafficked. No parent would put their child willingly through that journey to seek asylum if things weren't so dire in their home country.

[20:10:11]

There's no right to a court-appointed lawyer in the U.S. Immigration Court system for anyone, including children. I'm an immigration lawyer, and we are representing children for free.

(On camera) (through translation): They solved that problem?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

RUTTER: I had so many clients who were lacking basic needs. We helped connect them with medical care, food, housing.

OK, what does it mean to work in a team?

The weekly programs that we provide in school are specifically tailored to newcomer immigrant youth to help them be successful.

Now you have to untangle yourselves, but you cannot drop your hands.

We always have a social-emotional learning component.

Are you going under it?

We learn to work together and cooperate, right?

And then we always also incorporate an English learning piece.

Good job. That's awesome.

We work with a lot of kids who have been out of school for a long time. The program really helps them to build a community at school.

We've had teachers tell us that our program is the first time they've seen kids laugh or smile and feel truly engaged in the classroom.

I was 14 years old when I first arrived. I just feel so lost. This organization has helped me in everything.

I am a U.S. citizen now. I joined the Army National Guard. I have a full-time job.

I'm also going to school. I want to become an immigration attorney. I'm really grateful for all the opportunities this country has given me.

Immigrant communities are so essential across the U.S., and I think that's very misunderstood. I want people to know that these kids, they're just wanting to do the best they can for themselves and their families and to try to be safe.

I think we did it, guys. Good job.

Just that persistence and that work ethic, it's really like a testament to their strength and their resilience.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COATES: It is my honor to present CNN Hero Rachel Rutter.

Rachel, congratulations to you.

RUTTER: Thank you so much.

COATES: Unbelievable, the work you're doing. Immigration has become slightly political these days. I wonder if it's impacted the work that you're doing. COATES: Absolutely. It's so important to remember that we're talking

about human children, human beings, and our humanity and empathy for other people should not have borders.

And we heard just in this city this week about two migrant teenagers being stabbed, one of them killed because of this hateful rhetoric that we're seeing. And I hear from my kids every day who are afraid of not only being deported back to the danger they fled and separated from family, but also of that type of violence happening to them. I know from practicing under the first Trump administration that those fears are not unfounded.

As an organization and as a lawyer, I'm doing everything I can to protect them and to prepare. It makes a moment like this even more meaningful with CNN recognizing our work, because our work and our supporters are just more critical now than ever before.

COATES: Thank you for shining a light, Rachel. Such incredible work.

Anderson?

COOPER: Stick around. You're going to find out why this little girl is so important to our next hero story when we return.

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[20:16:28]

KELLY RIPA, DAYTIME EMMY WINNER: We're back with CNN Heroes. Throughout the night, as you meet the honorees, you can donate to any of them by going to cnnheroes.com and clicking on Donate, or you can scan the QR code on your screen right now. There are so many ways to give, and we're so grateful that GoFundMe is working with the heroes. No one, and I mean no one, makes me happier than our heroes. Sorry, Mark. Sorry, kids. Sorry, Anderson. I love you all, but it's true. These heroes are the best of the best.

Please support them and have a wonderful night.

COOPER: Kelly, thanks so much. Here at CNN Heroes, we love animals, and we've had so many on the show through the years. We've had sloths, seals, donkeys, and a lot of dogs.

The whole production team's got them. There's Olive and Layla and Lucky and Jojo and Charlie and Grace the Newfie/bear.

COATES: And then there's my beautiful Hershey, the cutest of all. He's perfect, and when I have to go out of town or something comes up, I have someone who will care for him in good times and in bad. But too many people don't, and in the United States, more than 900,000 shelter animals are euthanized every single year.

One reason many people surrender their pet is because they cannot find someone to take care of them while they're seeking treatment for substance abuse. COOPER: Well, our next hero is changing that and keeping their beloved pets safe and out of shelters. To tell us about his remarkable work is the star of NBC's Brilliant Minds and a proud supporter of the Trevor Project and a champion of raising awareness around mental health, Zachary Quinto.

ZACHARY QUINTO, EMMY NOMINEE AND STAR OF NBC'S BRILLIANT MINDS: Late one night, a woman holding her beloved dog, Jade, knocked on the right door. Stephen Knight opened it, and there stood his friend in bad shape. She asked Stephen to take her to the animal shelter to surrender Jade so she could go to rehab.

Stephen was only eight months sober himself. Having been addicted to crystal meth, he contracted HIV and lost everything, his job, his home, his family. But when Stephen locked eyes with Jade, he said, I'll take her, and in that act of kindness, he found his purpose.

He went back to school, became a substance abuse counselor, and created Dogs Matter, which provides foster homes for dogs, allowing their owners to seek the treatment they need. When they return, he offers 12 months of counseling and other services to help them succeed. To date, he's kept more than 1,200 pets from going into shelters.

The road to recovery is hard, but Stephen's work ensures that along the route, there are wagging tails, endless cuddles, and love.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHEN KNIGHT, DOGS MATTER FOUNDING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: When somebody makes that decision to go into treatment, it's one of the bravest decisions they'll make.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll see you soon, OK?

KNIGHT: When they don't have a place to put their dog, what we're finding out is how big of a need it is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just kept putting it off longer and longer. Somebody told me about Dogs Matter.

KNIGHT: I will make sure you get videos. We're going to take such great care of them. When we find a foster, we are able to prevent a dog going to shelter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dice! She hasn't seen me in so long. Dice! She hasn't seen me!

KNIGHT: We're finding the bond between the animal and the human makes such a big difference in their recovery, and it becomes their motivator to stay healthy.

We cannot have the solution be euthanized dogs. We can't.

[20:20:04]

I want to be the voice of the dog and to help them, because they don't have that voice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, that face. Remy. Oh, I miss him.

KNIGHT: We'll do a temporary foster contract.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You get to go back to your owners right now. Are you ready?

KNIGHT: You're saving that dog's life and the owner's life. Complete your treatment, and you're healthy, and we reunite.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's up, buddy? Hey.

KNIGHT: It's so good to see you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You miss me as much as I miss you.

KNIGHT: You fought for your life. You fought to keep your relationship with Remy, and here you are, and I don't care if it's 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. Give me a call. I've been there.

I was 51 when I decided to get sober and got a second chance at life. Being able to take this day and celebrate it and be with you and have this dog come back to you, it's everything.

If somebody asked me, describe myself 13 years ago, all I could tell you is that I was a struggling addict, HIV positive, had felons, and that was me.

Welcome to Bark in the Park. You're going to learn a whole lot today about what Dogs Matter does.

And to talk about where my life is now. I have my family back. That I'm running a nonprofit. I'm helping others.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm almost having eight months.

KNIGHT: Eight months! Oh, my God!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just happy I found you.

KNIGHT: It's what I teach my clients. It's like, with sobriety and recovery, you really can have life beyond your modest dreams.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Please join me in honoring CNN hero Stephen Knight. Congratulations, Stephen.

KNIGHT: Thank you.

COOPER: Here, pull it.

KNIGHT: We'll trade?

COOPER: Sure. Hold on. KNIGHT: She would love to say hi.

COOPER: Hey, Jade. How you doing? Wow. You've come such a long way and done so much for so many other people. And it really began with Jade.

KNIGHT: Yeah. So, I mean, she's my everything. And rescuing Jade, she taught me how to really appreciate life. And she gave me a second chance where I was able to have purpose and responsibility. Early on in recovery, it's hard. And I really was really struggling.

And to have her in my life and what she was part of my healing, and we actually have this spiritual bond and she's everything to me. And I don't want anybody ever to have to give up their dog for a second chance to get healthy. And that's why we have Dogs Matter.

And my mission in life is to continue to be able to help people and we'll help their dogs so they can get healthy again.

COOPER: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for all you're doing for so many people. Congratulations.

KNIGHT: Thank you.

COOPER: All right, Laura.

COATES: I want to play with Jade. Oh! Well, listen, tonight, not only are we honoring our inspiring CNN heroes, but we're also celebrating two young people who show us you can make a difference at any age. We call them Young Wonders.

And tonight, we have our first twins. They are tackling menstrual equity because even in this country, one in four girls cannot afford sanitary products. And that causes so many to miss school and work. Well, here to share their story is the Co-founder of Almasi Collaborative Arts, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing the African voice to the global stage through art, award-winning playwright, Black Panther, and Avengers star actor Danai Gurira.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANAI GURIRA, AWARD-WINNING ACTRESS AND PLAYWRIGHT: It's never easy moving to a home in a new state. Everything's unfamiliar, and you're worried about fitting in. Brooke and Breanna Bennett felt that way when they moved from Miami, Florida, to Montgomery, Alabama.

To make them feel welcome, the girls in their new church threw them a birthday party. That act of kindness inspired them to give back to the girls in their community. Their idea came from watching their mother. She worked at a girls' school, and many of the students would stop by her office for free period products because they couldn't afford them.

So in 2019, they started Women in Training, known as WIT, to provide menstrual products to girls and women in need for free. So far, they've supplied more than 30,000 WIT kids to shelters, after-school programs, and schools. And the first girls to receive a WIT kid? The eight girls who threw them a birthday party. Because acts of kindness can always make the world a better place.

BREANNA BENNETT, WIT CO-FOUNDER: We never thought we would do more than one giveaway for our 12th birthday, but we realized that this was a way bigger issue than we ever thought it would be.

Everything that you need is in there. Many people that we serve would view period products as a luxury, which is extremely sad because it is necessary.

Having period products is maintaining good health.

[00:25:01]

BROOKE BENNETT, WIT CO-FOUNDER: In our WIT kits, of course, we have the pads, and then we have shampoo, deodorant, soap, and dental items.

BREANNA BENNETT: Expanding our kits really came from a place of wanting menstruators to be all-around healthy.

BROOKE BENNETT: We realized that we couldn't get around to everyone, no matter how hard we try. And so we met with Representative Rolanda Hollis to help pass this bill so that we could get period products around Alabama.

REP. ROLANDA HOLLIS (D-AL): They knew exactly what they wanted. We sat, I listened, and we created the bill. For $100,000 in the budget, and we're going to try to double it again.

BROOKE BENNETT: Yes.

BREANNA BENNETT: Yes.

BROOKE BENNETT: The bill provides menstrual products in Title I schools across the state of Alabama.

HOLLIS: We have serviced over 50,000 females. That's because the twin girls had it in their hearts to help other young women.

BROOKE BENNETT: Hi, how are y'all? We have some kits for you guys.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh really?

BREANNA BENNETT: What keeps us really going is the joy that is on these menstruators' faces when they realize that they don't need to worry about their time of the month. Fuzzy socks, that's my favorite part.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This kit means I have the things that I need that I normally could not afford being a homeless person. We're trying to survive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is exactly what females need every day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just felt amazing that two young ladies could care and think about someone like me. And it meant the world.

BROOKE BENNETT: Group hugs. Group hugs.

BREANNA BENNETT: For the future of women in training, we see expanding nationwide. There's always something that you can do to help other people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COATES: Joining us from Atlanta are Breanna and Brooke, our amazing young wonders. Congratulations, ladies. You are such a powerful duo, and you're influencing government policy and even children like my own daughter.

What would you like to see happen on a broader scale to help even more girls?

BROOKE BENNETT: First of all, I just want to say thank you so much. We're so grateful to be here. Bri and I want to take women in training to a global level, but right now we're starting off as supporting Congressman Grace Meng's Menstrual Equity for All Act to put menstrual products in public buildings across the country and to remove the tax on menstrual products.

COATES: Well, I am so proud of the work you guys are doing. Truly amazing young wonders. Thank you so much for being here and all that you do.

Hey, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:31:24]

COOPER: The fields of Science Technology Engineering and Math, STEM have some of the most important jobs in the world. But according to the National Science Foundation, only 29% of people employed in stem fields are women while black indigenous and Latino women make up less than 5% of all people working in STEM.

COATES: We're here to share how our next hero is working to change those very numbers is the principal dancer for American Ballet Theatre and founder of the Misty Copeland Foundation, which works to bring equity and inclusion to dance. Please welcome Misty Copeland.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MISTY COPELAND, BALLET DANCER: Where does that confidence crushing voice come from? You know, the one that bellows in your head. You can't do that because you're a girl.

As a high school math teacher, Yamilee Toussaint heard that voice influencing her students. Yamilee knew that she, a stem-loving woman of color, was an exception. She grew up loving two things, math, because her parents worked in science and engineering, and dance. Even at MIT, she pursued them separately. But then she saw her favorite performers combine dance with precise graphics, lights, and sounds. And in 2012, she brought her passions together in Brooklyn.

She founded STEM from Dance, which offers girls 8 to 18 school programs and summer camps, where they can move and learn to use science, technology, engineering, and math to make their performances shine. And on center stage in nine cities across America, step-by- step, black girls and brown girls now hear those confidence-building words. You can do that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mom first told me about their program. I didn't even hear the STEM. I just went straight to dance. I was like, OK, dance? OK, I'm in. And she was like, OK, there's STEM to it, too. Like, you know, be excited about that part.

YAMILEE TOUSSAINT, STEM FROM DANCE FOUNDER AND CEO: Big hops on the move.

Through dance, we're able to create this atmosphere that feels comfortable. And with that space, we're able to introduce something that feels kind of intimidating.

Can I hear about what you're working on?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Basically, our story is like it's the last day of school, like happiness.

TOUSSAINT: We bring STEM and dance together by allowing the girls to create dance performances that combine the two, so they can work on costumes that light up as they move, and they're learning how to program the circuits.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to talk about song structure today.

TOUSSAINT: They can create their own song through computer science and AI.

So these are the poses in the beginning.

And then be able to make a dance routine to that song that they created.

Love it. This is going to be so fly.

We're normalizing that girls of color can talk about computer science and create something together.

Can I see your phone?

I was skeptical at first, but then we really started to go deeper into the STEM part.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want to set our shirt to a color, and now we have to create those variables.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I realized that STEM can relate to my deepest interest.

TOUSSAINT: Almost showtime. I'll be out there cheering you all.

On the last day of camp, the girls perform in a big theater that we rent out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm feeling 80s vibe.

TOUSSAINT: OK.

They have the opportunity to show off all that they learned and have the affirmation of hundreds of people is cheering them on.

[20:35:12]

That feeling that they get, we want them to remember that. So when they face that hard math problem, they're reminded, I could do hard things.

You're going to keep in touch afterwards.

These girls are brilliant, and they have the potential to transform the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COATES: Well, it is my honor to present CNN Hero, Yamilee Toussaint.

Wow, how incredible this is for you, Yamilee. Congratulations.

I understand that you draw a lot of inspiration from your mom and dad, and your dad is actually here with us tonight. He must be so proud of how far you've come.

TOUSSAINT: Yes, he's so proud. You know, when I think about him, I think about him as a teenager coming to the U.S. from Haiti and really establishing his life and his career as an engineer. And really also instilling this love for engineering in me and my brother.

And so I think that the fact that I always thought that I could be an engineer, even though I was the girl, my brother became an engineer, but I became one too. And when I think about STEM from Dance, that's what we want to create.

This idea that anyone, especially our girls, especially our girls of color, can dream big in STEM and see themselves having a future in STEM. So just like I was inspired by my father, I hope that girls all over the world are really inspired by me and by STEM from Dance.

COATES: They certainly are. Unbelievable. Thank you so much.

Anderson.

COOPER: Thanks so much. Every day, our heroes do incredible work and change people's lives. And with the right support, including yours, they can do even more. This year, the Elevate Prize Foundation is again helping amplify the impact of our CNN heroes even more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE DEITCH, ELEVATE PRIZE FOUNDATION FOUNDER: These people are on the front lines. They're battling for others. They're doing the hard work.

COOPER: For three years now, the Elevate Prize Foundation has helped the top CNN heroes reach new heights.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're coming together for workshops to connect and to build community.

COOPER: The foundation provides them with critical nonprofit and leadership training.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have the weight of the world on your shoulders. There's power in community.

COOPER: They also took part in Elevate's annual summit for global changemakers and donors.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not just to celebrate them, but to be able to scale their solutions.

DEITCH: When we combine purpose and passion, we're pretty much unstoppable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Once again, CNN Heroes is collaborating with the Elevate Prize Foundation, a global nonprofit on a mission to make good famous, bringing visibility to the world of changemakers and inspiring the world. Here is their founder, Joe Deitch, and CEO, Carolina Garcia Jayaram.

COOPER: Good to have you. Thank you so much for all your help.

DEITCH: It's an honor to be here once again with CNN Heroes to celebrate five remarkable individuals from around the world, each one a shining example of what's possible when we dare to dream and then take action. Their work not only transforms lives, but it has the power to spark a global movement for good, proving that small acts of kindness and bold visions can ripple outwards to create profound change.

CAROLINA GARCIA JAYARAM, ELEVATE PRIZE FOUNDATION CEO: At Elevate, our mission is to make good famous, to ignite even greater impact by helping to amplify stories like theirs and inspire audiences around the world.

Over the past few years, we've had the privilege of supporting these extraordinary changemakers with tools to increase their visibility, expand their network, and grow their fundraising capacity. By providing this strategic support, we've seen their incredible work create even greater impact in their communities and beyond.

DEITCH: So if you're inspired by these heroes tonight, we invite you to join us in supporting their work. The Elevate Prize is proud to match your donations, dollar for dollar, up to $50,000 for each hero. So please visit cnnheroes.com and help us make an even bigger impact and a better world.

Thank you so much.

COATES: Well, he's a music conductor, so he's used to being on stage all the time, but hopefully he's not having any butterflies tonight. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:43:24]

COOPER: We are back with CNN Heroes. In the last decade, Europe has seen record numbers of asylum seekers looking for a safe place to call home. In Sweden, a country that has long welcomed immigrants and refugees from around the world, shifting attitudes and policy changes there can make these newcomers feel like outsiders.

COATES: Well, our next hero is an immigrant himself who found a home in Sweden and helps others find the place in the world for them through their universal power of music. Here to introduce our next CNN Hero is the founder of One Family Foundation, which supports caregivers impacted by cancer. Welcome to Bradley Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRADLEY COOPER, ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE: The streets of Caracas, Venezuela are not the easiest places for a child to grow up with all the gangs, drugs, and violence. But Ron Davis Alvarez heard music on those mean streets while selling ice cream with his grandmother so his family can make ends meet. He heard the alluring sounds of a violin and watched kids walk into a music school.

At 10, he joined them and felt an instant connection. He thrived at the school and made it his life studying music at the university, becoming a teacher and a conductor. The work took him from South America to Africa, close to the Arctic Circle and eventually Sweden.

There, in a train station in 2015, he saw scores of refugees and asylum seekers who seemed lost and without hope. The following year, he moved there and started the Dream Orchestra to help them find a community and healing through music.

Now hundreds of people of all ages from around the world, including native Swedes, use their violins, their flutes, and trumpets to connect and create something beautiful. The notes and rhythms from humanity's greatest unifying gift, music.

[20:45:14]

RON DAVIS ALVAREZ, DREAM ORCHESTRA FOUNDER: An orchestra is like a community. Different people, different voices, different melodies. The violins listen to the cellos and the cellos hear trumpets. Imagine if the world worked more like an orchestra. We would have a better world for sure.

I came in 2015 to Sweden and there was arriving so many refugees and asylum seekers from Syria, from Afghanistan, from Middle East.

I was just thinking, what are they going to do? Music changed my life. I knew that. I know that. So in this moment, I know one solution.

OK. One, two, and three, and four.

Dream Orchestra is open for anyone who wants to learn an instrument, especially families who are arriving to Sweden. And it's an orchestra where the main language is music.

I need one more chair. We have more than 300 people. Kids, parents, youth, more than 20 languages and more than 25 nationalities.

And kids who are born here, we all need to learn from each other.

Let's do G major scale, but we're going to do it really for the life.

Music connects us. We are a family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I left in Ukraine. All my family there because of my small son, because of war. When we joined Dream Orchestra, this really became the place he wanted to be.

And then I see that it's possible to join them and we can play together.

Ron, he's really perfect teacher. He really showed how to express yourself with music.

After having such great stress, this makes us alive once again, really healing. Life is going on.

ALVAREZ: This orchestra offers more than just notes. This orchestra offers something for the soul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COATES: Please join me in honoring CNN hero Ron Davis Alvarez.

Congratulations to you. It's so evident your joy is truly infectious. You have done so much to create a sense of community for people to find hope and joy. How do you make that connection?

ALVAREZ: I think connection starts when we listen and when we understand and we trust people. And when the music becomes that bridge to help to empower them. I would say the orchestra is like a big society and when we can take care of each individual and they feel sometimes really sad, then music and food is always something they can bring you home.

COATES: Music, love, universal language. Thank you so much.

ALVAREZ: Thank you.

COOPER: Congratulations.

Now, do not go away. Coming up, we're going to have the powerful tribute to this year's CNN Heroes Legacy honoree, Michael J. Fox.

COATES: And then, the moment you've all been waiting for, we're going to announce our 2024 CNN Hero of the Year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:52:12]

COATES: We're back. All night we've been celebrating everyday people making a huge difference. But now we want to recognize someone not so every day doing the same thing.

The CNN Heroes Legacy Award honors a lifetime commitment to service and an unwavering dedication to making the world a better place. You know Michael J. Fox is doing just that.

COOPER: Yeah, he certainly is. He's brought joy to so many people throughout his career in television and in film. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease when he was just 29 years old.

And since going public he's brought hope to millions worldwide. As you may know Parkinson's is progressive. Symptoms vary patient to patient and not much progress has been made with treatment since the 1960s.

In 2000 Michael launched his Michael J. Fox Foundation to target and speed up research to try to eradicate the disease. And it's become his life's work.

For Michael it all began when he met with a neurologist in 1991. As he mentioned in last year's award-winning documentary "Still."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL J. FOX, CNN HEROES LEGACY AWARD: The most paranoid fantasy I could think of would not have prepared me for the two words the neurologist bludgeoned me with that day. Parkinson's disease.

COOPER: Before his diagnosis Michael J. Fox had led a charmed life. Winning fans in the succession of hits most notably Back to the Future.

FOX: Are you telling me you built a time machine? Out of a DeLorean?

COOPER: He kept his condition private until 1998 when he decided to share his story. He soon realized that going public gave him an opportunity.

FOX: The war against Parkinson's is a winnable war and I have resolved to play a role in that victory. COOPER: In 2000 he launched the Michael J. Fox Foundation to supercharge research for a cure.

FOX: We really want to seize the momentum here and help fuel an accelerated progress toward a breakthrough.

COOPER: Over the years he lobbied Congress for funding and campaigned for candidates who supported stem cell research.

FOX: It's time we get back to our future.

COOPER: If you know and believe in what you're saying and you want to get that message out you're just going to do it.

COOPER: His foundation has become a vital source of hope working with scientists to achieve progress faster. It's also the world's largest non-profit funder Parkinson's Research. Contributing more than two billion dollars toward finding a cure.

FOX: I think I always assumed there was a department of cures but there isn't. It's us.

COOPER: The group also supports patients with education, mentoring and Team Fox fundraisers of all shapes and sizes. By remaining in the public eye Fox has helped demystify the disease even poking fun at it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh Jesus Christ! What the hell?

FOX: Did you shake that up on purpose? Parkinson's.

[20:55:03]

COOPER: He recently shared an intimate view of his life in "Still," a documentary that showed his struggles, determination and ever-present humor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go. Nice job.

FOX: Don't put Mikey in a corner.

COOPER: In 2023 his foundation announced its landmark study had discovered a biomarker for Parkinson's. A major step on the road to a cure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads.

FOX: Now this time we need roads.

COOPER: His advocacy has improved countless lives. But the optimism and resilience Fox has shown on his journey inspires us all.

FOX: It's just like being in the moment. Whether it's personal things that make you happy or reaching out and helping other people. There's no more important moment than right now.

COOPER: It's my honor to present the CNN Heroes Legacy Award to Michael J. Fox.

FOX: Hi. Well thank you very much for this award. Anytime you receive an honor with the words legacy or hero attached you know there's been a mistake. I'm certainly not worthy of that level of celebration. But the community, the Parkinson's community is. And I'm very proud on behalf of all the people with Parkinson's and their families who fight so hard for a cure. Who fight so hard for answers and new drugs in the pipeline. And through our foundation have found a way to realize that. They've risen to this challenge with energy and love and dedication and commitment.

I'm so proud to be a part of it. But I'm just a part of it. It's all of you that are making a difference. So thank you again. I am humbled. I am grateful. And with gratitude. Optimism is sustainable. We get this done.

COOPER: It's incredible what he's accomplished for Parkinson's.

COATES: He is so accomplished. He is so inspiring. And to be so humble with all that he has done. Unbelievable.

COOPER: And now what you've all been waiting for. Let's bring out our heroes.

Well, since we announced the top five heroes. We gave you the opportunity to vote for the hero who inspires you. The hero who received the most votes will be awarded $100,000 to continue their life changing work.

And this year thanks to our collaboration with the Elevate Prize Foundation. The CNN Hero of the Year will also receive an additional $100,000. And all honorees will receive critical non-profit training to support their efforts.

COATES: Well, here the time has come. And the 2024 CNN Hero of the Year is -- let's read it together.

COATES & COOPER: Stephen Knight.

(MUSIC)

COATES: Oh my goodness.

COOPER: Congratulations.

KNIGHT: You want to take Jade?

COATES: Oh my goodness. Can I? Oh congratulations.

KNIGHT: Thank you guys so much. This is amazing. Oh my gosh.

COATES: What does this mean to the world?

KNIGHT: This means everything. I represent so much here. I mean 13 years ago I just wanted to live. And not, you know, and not fall from addiction. And to be able to have this in my journey. And be able to be able to help others. And have a purpose now. I represent so much. I represent the recovery community. The dog rescue community, to have a platform to say that we got to do better with our dogs. And not have them go to the shelter. And not euthanize them. And to find purpose. And I share this award with Jade.

She's the reason why I did this. One act of kindness. And then to have that dream and that goal to be able to help others. And do one step at a time to get there. And 1,500 to 1,200 dogs later. It's amazing. But it's just beginning too. This is going to be able to take us to the next level.

And I'm so excited. I got to thank my family. I got to thank my team. I got to thank Dallas Pets Alive. There's so many people to thank. And I'm most delighted to thank our fosters.

We have to have foster families to do this. We don't have a program without the foster families. So I represent so many people. I'm so grateful. I'm so overwhelmed.

COOPER: Well, Stephen Knight, congratulations. We're so happy for you.

KNIGHT: Thank you.

COATES: Oh, what a night. Thank you for joining us to honor the very best of humanity. You can support all of our honorees right now by going to cnnheroes.com and clicking Donate. Each donation will be matched dollar for dollar.

COOPER: And if you know someone as amazing as tonight's honorees, you can nominate them to be a CNN Hero next year. Nominations are now open at cnnheroes.com. We hope some of these stories have inspired you to get involved and do your part because you, too, can be somebody's hero.

Thank you and good night.