Last week, ESPN's Corporate Citizenship department collected its first ever Sports Emmy for Outstanding Music Direction for "Don't Give Up on Me,"which played on ESPN's programming throughout the 13th consecutive V Week for Cancer Research and during the Jimmy V Men's and Women's Basketball Classics. Multi-platinum selling pop artist Andy Grammer performed his song in a touching vignette that highlighted the themes of fighting adversity, supporting loved ones, having belief in dark times and ultimately not giving up.
ESPN's Don't Retire, Kid also won a Cynopsis Sports Media Award on Wednesday for Awareness Campaign for a Social Good Initiative. The campaign, which launched with the Aspen Institute, Ralph C. Wilson Jr., Foundation and Project Play 2020, addressed why kids are no longer playing sports, showing that the average child quits by age 11. The campaign has already collected several international advertising and marketing awards, including a 2020 Silver Halo Award, Ragan's 2019 PR Daily Award, a 2020 Bronze One Show Award and a PR Daily's 2020 Corporate Social Responsibility Award.
ESPN believes that, at its very best, sports uplift the human spirit, and Vice President of Corporate Citizenship, Kevin Martinez, is leading his team to use the power of sport to positively address society's needs through strategic community investments, cause marketing programs, collaboration with sports organizations and employee volunteerism. Because of his leadership, Martinez was recently named the Grand Prize of CSR Professional of the Year in PR Daily's 2020 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards. Earlier this year, the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals crowned Martinez as a Trailblazer at the 2020 Purpose Awards for demonstrating significant business and social impact.
PR Daily's 2020 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards also recognized ESPN for Best Employee Volunteer Program because of its "40,000 Acts of Service" program. The program was launched in the summer leading up to ESPN's 40th anniversary and inspired employees to give back to their communities through service and engagement. The initiative was designed to celebrate the company's past and drive toward the future, all while reaching a collective goal of logging 40,000 acts of service. Ultimately, employees generated over 80,000 acts upon the company's 40th anniversary.
And earlier this year, ESPN, X Games, Major League Baseball and DoSomething.org's Shred Hate, Choose Kindness campaign won a Cynopsis Media Best of the Best Award for Best Awareness Campaign: Children Focused. The campaign was created to encourage youth to do their part to "shred" bullying online, and a PSA - featuring X Games medalist Gus Kenworthy and New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso -encouraged youth to participate. The campaign inspired youth to flag and report 65,000 accounts on social media for bullying and trolling as part of the campaign last summer.