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 (MSNBC) Willie Garson played Stanford Blatch on "Sex and the City."
Willie Garson Touts Adoptions in U.S.
JULY 03, 2009Jessica Abramson, MSNBCCause Celeb highlights a celebrity’s work on behalf of a specific cause. This week we speak with actor Willie Garson about his involvement with National Adoption Day, which this year falls on Nov. 21, and The Alliance for Children’s Rights, an organization that educates people about the number of children who need homes in the United States and helps ease the process of public adoption.
www.NationalAdoptionDay.orgWillie Garson played Stanford Blatch on HBO’s "Sex and the City" television series and the movie. He is also well-known for his role as Henry on "NYPD Blue." He has starred in numerous other television shows and movies. Currently, Garson is filming a new USA television series, "White Collar," and the second "Sex and the City" movie. Willie Garson is active with many nonprofit organizations including Aspen Youth Experience, Joslin Diabetes Center, AMFAR and Habitat for Humanity. Question: Can you tell us a little bit about the The Alliance for Children’s Rights? Garson: The Alliance for Children’s Rights sees through all of the legal documentation that’s necessary for public adoption here in California-in Los Angeles, where I live. And what that means is that there is a lot of red tape and paperwork and that’s why there’s so many kids in the system and they make it (the process) go for people who otherwise couldn’t do it. It’s just a really great thing. They generally cost over one thousand dollars just to do the legal paperwork to make an adoption happen and when a family is getting ready to adopt its just another nightmare that they don’t have to deal with Q: What inspired you to get involved with this organization? Garson: Well most of my charities have always been kids' charities and this one in particular just because I’m very interested in adoption and kids that are out there and need a home and how difficult it is to find the match and then go through the whole process. We get contacted quite a bit by a number of organizations and they knew that I did a lot of kids charities so this was just one was right up my alley so that’s how I came to know them and then now actually they are helping me as I’ve gone through my own process Q: What is your exact role with the organization? Garson: I just help them with fundraising and doing things like this — like talking to you on the phone about it. People should know I’m certainly not like Mr. USA or anything but people should know there’s certainly a lot of kids in the system here in America that need a home and they think that its an impossible thing to do so that’s why a lot of people end up going foreign or private for adoption. I don’t know what the stats are in New York but I know that in Los Angeles is the highest in the country — I think there’s something like over one hundred thousand kids in the system in Los Angeles county and yet, you know, every actor I know is running to Africa or Vietnam to get a baby so I just wanted to shed some light on that they’re are people to help you here through the process, which is difficult, and a lot of government red tape but it can be done and there are kids right here in the US that need homes.
Q: Have you had a moving experience with the organization that you would like to share? Garson: Well you know one of the greatest is I think it’s in May-National Adoption Day and that is when it’s something like there’s thousands of adoptions are finalized across the country on National Adoption Day. What we do as celebrities is we come down to the Children’s Court House and we get to assist a judge in a literal court of law and help them finalize adoptions with families and its just the best. This year, I assisted in an adoption that was three sisters all being adopted at the same time by two families that neither family could take all of them so the two families split the girls and they’re best friends and they live next door to each other (the two families) and it was very moving to sit through that adoption with the mother crying and the adopted mother its a very joyful day and its like all of the hard work and training, (because you have to go through a lot of training) certification, all the legal work, and all of it coming to fruition across the country so it’s a big deal and I go ever year and I love it. It’s my favorite thing ever Q: Why do you think people should support The Alliance for Children’s Rights Garson: Well certainly in Los Angeles just because there are so many kids in the system and need a home and that kind of just speaks for itself. Q: What are you working on professionally since Sex and the City ended or are you working on the second movie? Garson: There is a second movie in the works-that’s about all I can say about that right now (ha ha) and then I’ll be doing a show for the USA Network called the White Collar which is a NBC affiliate (ha ha) so that’s interesting and that’s it. I’m going to do a new T.V. series and I’m going to make another movie. Q: And is there anything else that you would like to add? Garson: No just that it’s great that someone somewhere is writing about people doing good works you know because the we kind of live under a microscope and people waiting for us to screw up and do horrible things and there is much more majority of us that do things. You certainly saw my list. I do 10 charities that I spend my time with and it’s really important that you can use. If it raises one more dollar by you throwing your name onto something then it’s all worth it. Interviewed by Jessica Abramson, NBC News
© 2008 msnbc.com
Reproduced with permission of MSNBC, from Willie Garson touts adoptions in US: Why go abroad when so many kids here need a home? by Jessica Abramson, July 2, 2009; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
You can read this story in its original location at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31372576/ns/us_news-giving/
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