NOTE: This post will remain in this spot through the end of February.
Yes, this is about someone who needs some help but who’s too modest to ask for it. We all know people who’ve battled serious health problems, but once in a while you hear about someone who has spent his life spreading good, kindness and joy. It’s even more wonderful if it’s someone who has spent his life spreading good, kindness and joy to the world’s children who he makes his own. And its doubly wonderful when you know that person.
It was some 15 years ago when in my non-writing incarnation Wayne booked me to do some of his highly popular and acclaimed Kids Club shows in malls in the Los Angeles area. But it was only recently I learned of his background. His Kids Club website notes that his specialty was to produce top rate, highly professional and wholesome children’s entertainment. He had served as Production Manager and Coordinator for PBS, Disney, Universal, NFL, the Special Olympics, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), Children’s Hospital (New York City), the Los Angeles Central Library and many others.
He toured the country working on live productions of top PBS kids shows. He served as producer and executive producer on award winning children’s music albums and is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
But none of that explains what Wayne really DOES.
It isn’t that he just produces shows and coordinates.
He connects with kids — and not just in the productions. From the first time I met Wayne I was struck with how he never ever talked down to a kid. They weren’t little things like cats and dogs, but other beings, human spirits, human intelligence, clay waiting to be shaped. Wayne’s mission seemed to be to help shape the clay in a good way by offering programs that provided positive imprinting. And you can see that when he talks to kids, he connects totally with them. They love him.
I saw that first-hand in three very needy children who I brought along several times to help me on my shows. Two were a brother and sister with a traumatic family life involving their mother leaving them for what turned out to be more than a decade. They were always really hurting. One is now 22 and one is 18. They still remember Wayne, remember his name and how nice and kind he was to them. The other was a boy who had little contact with his father. This kid helped me three summers in a row with my mall shows for Wayne in L.A., and Wayne connected with him and when he offered to do more and help another act move equipment, Wayne took him up on it and the kid was elated. Wayne treated and talked to him as a lifelong friend and member of the production. When I was to take him again this summer, he asked me: “Will that guy be there again?”
It always struck me that Wayne is an example of a REAL pied piper of children — producing entertainment for them that was the epitome of the kind of fun, educational and “safe” entertainment children should see. A mall show hosted by Wayne is like a family event run by a relative. They love the shows he connects and the way he produces the program. But, more importantly, he always has time for each and every child who talks to him, connects totally with them and without any condescension and takes them up on offers to help. A child going to one of his shows could see a good show but if they meet Wayne and interact with him, it is a growth experience.
And now he has a Stage IV cancer in a challenge that began two years ago. At first, he responded well to treatment, but now the cancer returned and it hasn’t responded to recent treatments. He needs money — insurance doesn’t totally cover the whopping cost. He’ll use the money for the chemo, work to contain it and try others to see if one does work, and keep exploring alternative means of treatment.
GO HERE to a fundraising website set up by a friend. Wayne didn’t ask. The friend just had met Wayne, his wife Ann and daughter Norah and even though the Daniels’ are modest, she knew what needed to be done. Spread the word by putting the link to that site (or this post) on Facebook or send it to some others.
TMV was going to have a fundraiser in January or Feb. We’ll hold off OUR fundraiser until March at the earliest and run this periodically. If you can donate now, donate something for Wayne Daniels at the fundraising website. If every TMV reader over the next month or two just gave $5 or $10 (or more if they want) it would go a long way to someone who has had an enormous positive impact on children across the country.
The world’s kids needed Wayne Daniels when I had first met him some 15 years ago. The world’s kids and the world need him more than ever today.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.