LEGO Foundation recognizes Koss’ contribution to improving children’s lives  

TORONTO, CANADA (April 8, 2013) – The LEGO Foundation has awarded Right To Play Founder, President and CEO Johann Koss the 2013 LEGO Prize. The award carries with it a USD $100,000 prize, which will benefit Right To Play programs worldwide.

Koss will receive the 2013 LEGO Prize at the LEGO Idea Conference award ceremony April 9 in Billund, Denmark.

Right To Play is a global organization that uses the transformative power of play to educate and empower children facing adversity. Founded in 1985, the LEGO Prize is awarded to individuals and institutions that have made an extraordinary contribution on behalf of children and young people.

“Johann Koss is awarded the LEGO Prize 2013 as recognition of the tremendous impact he has had on children’s lives through his organization, Right To Play,” says Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, Chairman of the LEGO Foundation and principal shareholder of the family-owned LEGO Group.

“Since 1993 he has been dedicated to helping vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people to a better future using play and sport as a tool for education and health. Right To Play has shared values and overlapping aims with the LEGO Foundation that works to equip and empower children to build a better tomorrow for themselves and their communities through higher quality learning experiences.”

A three-time gold medalist in speed skating at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, it was a trip to the African nation of Eritrea in 1993 as an ambassador for the organization Olympic Aid, where Koss discovered his passion for helping children, and the potential of play to create change.

Founded in 2000, Right To Play reaches one million children through weekly play activities across more than 20 countries. The organization’s programs are designed to respond to the needs of the communities where it operates, and use specially-designed games and play-based learning activities to help children build the essential life skills that will help them better their futures and drive lasting social change.

“Play is not a luxury,” says Koss. “Every child has the right to play, not only because it is fun, but because it is critical to their education and healthy development. We share that belief and commitment to children’s well-being with the LEGO Foundation and the LEGO Group, which has been providing children with play material that help them learn and grow for more than 80 years. It is a great honour to have Right To Play’s work recognized by such an iconic play brand and we are very grateful for this prize.”

Past recipients of the LEGO Prize have included Astrid Lindgren, Paul Newman, Mario Lodi, Dean Kamen, Nicholas Negroponte and such institutions as Associacão Santa Therinha in Brazil, the SaekDong Organisation in Korea, and Papalote Museo del Niño in Mexico City. The LEGO Prize was most recently awarded in 2011 – to Sir Ken Robinson for advocating that schools and teachers throughout the world should inspire creativity in children.

About Right To Play
Right To Play is a global organization that uses the transformative power of play to educate and empower children facing adversity. Through playing sports and games, Right To Play helps children in more than 20 countries to build essential life skills and better futures, while driving lasting social change. Founded in 2000 by four-time Olympic gold medalist and social entrepreneur Johann Olav Koss, Right To Play is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has national offices in Canada, the Netherlands, Norway Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our programs are facilitated by 600 international staff and more than 13,500 volunteer Coaches.

About the LEGO Foundation
The LEGO Foundation was founded in 1986, and it holds 25% of the LEGO Group shares. The activities are based on the belief that all children should have access to quality play and learning experiences. The LEGO Foundation has a goal of creating impact by inspiring and developing children and youth to become active citizens – and to empower them to create a better future for themselves – through fun, creativity and high quality learning.

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Kyla Pearson
Media and Communications Officer
Right To Play International
Email:  kpearson@righttoplay.com
Phone: +1 (416) 498-1922 x.240
www.righttoplay.com

Frederikke Tømmergaard
Head of Communications
LEGO Foundation
Email: frederikke.toemmergaard@lego.com
Phone: +45 52159373
www.LEGOFoundation.com

RIGHT TO PLAY HITS TARGET OF REACHING ONE MILLION CHILDREN IN WEEKLY ACTIVITIES

TORONTO, CANADA (April 4, 2013) – We are thrilled to announce that Right To Play has achieved its 2012 goal of reaching one million children worldwide through weekly play programs. This accomplishment marks a milestone for our organization, which set the seven-figure goal in 2008.

“While we believe that impacting one child’s life makes a difference, we are very proud that we have reached this milestone,” says Right To Play President and CEO Johann Olav Koss. “I am so proud that we have achieved our goal of reaching one million young people every week, and I see this growth as a testament to the quality of our work, the skill and dedication of our global team and the commitment of our supporters.”

Founded in 2000, Right To Play is a global organization that uses the transformative power of play to educate and empower children facing adversity. Through playing sports and games, we help children in more than 20 countries build the essential life skills to help them better their futures and drive lasting social change.

By end of 2001, we were reaching just over 37,000 children weekly. In 2008, with the inking of our first five-year strategic plan, Right To Play set the goal of reaching one million children by 2012, and the hard work of 600 dedicated staff and thousands of Coaches worldwide has paid off.

Right To Play Coaches are local volunteers trained to deliver our specially designed programs. Responding to the needs of their communities, Coaches are not only the leaders who implement our play-based learning activities, they are the role models and mentors guiding children’s success.

We encourage leadership at all ages by also providing young people with unique opportunities to participate in the planning and execution of our programs. Right To Play Junior Leaders – some as young as eight-years-old – are given the opportunities to build their confidence and rise to the challenge of leadership by facilitating programs with and for their peers.

In addition, we’ve benefited from the support of a global network of professional and Olympic athletes from over 40 countries who inspire children and lend their voices to the cause.

In 2012, Right To Play’s programs showed growth in a variety of areas, including:

• More than 13,500 local volunteer Right To Play Coaches are leading programs worldwide. This number was 180 in 2001.
• The number of Junior Leaders (6,300) who are role models for younger participants and within the community has grown by more than 25 percent since 2011.
• The number of children living with disabilities participating in Right To Play programs worldwide has increased by nearly 15 percent to 10,300 since 2011.
• 49 percent of program participants are girls and 56 percent of our Coaches are female.

As 2013 marks the beginning of a new five-year strategic plan, achieving its goal of reaching one million children has given Right To Play even greater motivation to pursue its major objectives of doubling its reach by 2017 to two million children worldwide.

About Right To Play
Right To Play is a global organization that uses the transformative power of play to educate and empower children facing adversity. Through playing sports and games, Right To Play helps children in more than 20 countries to build essential life skills and better futures, while driving lasting social change. Founded in 2000 by four-time Olympic gold medalist and social entrepreneur Johann Olav Koss, Right To Play is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has national offices in Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and regional offices in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Our programs are facilitated 600 international staff and more than 13,500 volunteer Coaches. To learn more about Right To Play visit www.righttoplay.com

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For more information, please contact:

Lindsay Hower
National Director, Right To Play United States
Email:  lhower@righttoplayusa.org           
www.righttoplayusa.org

Right To Play President & CEO Johann Koss awarded 2013 Henry R. Kravis 
Prize in Leadership     

PRIZE carries $250,000 AWARD TO BENEFIT RIGHT TO PLAY PROGRAMS

TORONTO, CANADA (Wednesday, March 6, 2013) – We are proud to announce that Right To Play President and CEO Johann Olav Koss is the 2013 recipient of the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership. Announced by Claremont McKenna College (CMC) today, the Kravis Prize, which carries a $250,000 award, recognizes extraordinary leadership in the non-profit sector. 

Johann will be presented with The Kravis Prize at a ceremony on April 18 held on the CMC campus in Claremont, California.

“Receiving the Kravis award is an incredible honour,” says Johann. “A strong leader is a function of a strong team, and I accept this award as a testament to the work Right To Play is achieving around the world. Play is a universal language and we use it to help children overcome adversity, build their confidence, deal with confrontation peacefully, and respect their opponents – all essential life skills and leadership skills.

I am very grateful to the Kravis family for this award and for the continued success it will help us to achieve.”

First celebrated for his excellence on ice as a four time Olympic gold medalist in speed skating, Johann turned his leadership in sport into a bold new idea: improve the lives of children facing adversity around the world by using their natural instinct – to play – as a positive way to educate and empower them.

In 2000, under Johann’s leadership, that idea became Right To Play as we know it today.

Henry R. Kravis ‘67, co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. and founder of the Prize, says it is important that recipients of the Kravis Prize “have a real and measurable impact in the community. Johann Olav Koss is not only a champion in his native country and a true hero for aspiring athletes, his legacy also now includes transforming the lives of hundreds of thousands of children through something as simple as the opportunity to play sports.”

“We seek nonprofits that have a far-reaching, tangible impact,” adds Marie-Josée Kravis, chair of the Kravis Prize Selection Committee. “Right To Play reaches 1 million children and youth through weekly activities, and has trained nearly 12,000 volunteer Coaches and 5,000 Junior Leaders to help run its weekly programs. All of these efforts are educating and transforming a new generation, globally.”

As a Kravis Award winner, Johann and Right To Play join an inspiring list of past recipients:

Roy Prosterman (2006), founder of Landesa (formerly the Rural Development Institute); Fazle Abed (2007), founder of Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC); the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) (2008); Dr. Sakena Yacoobi (2009), founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning; Pratham (2010), India’s largest nonprofit dedicated to improving the reading, writing, and basic arithmetic skills of children ages six through 14; Vicky Colbert (2011), founder of the Escuela Nueva Foundation; Soraya Salti (2012) regional director of INJAZ Al-Arab; and also in 2012, mothers2mothers, an organization preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

Click here to watch a video of Johann Koss being interviewed by a Claremont McKenna College student.

About The Kravis Prize

Established in 2006, The Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership recognizes and celebrates extraordinary accomplishment and bold leadership in the nonprofit sector. The Kravis Prize is presented and administered by Claremont McKenna College and Marie-Josée Kravis and Henry Kravis. Mrs. Kravis, an economist, is a senior fellow of the Hudson Institute; Mr. Kravis, founding partner, co-chairman and co-CEO of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an alumnus and trustee of Claremont McKenna College.

The Kravis Prize Selection Committee, chaired by Mrs. Kravis, includes: Harry McMahon, CMC alumnus and chair of the Claremont McKenna College Board of Trustees, and executive vice chairman, Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate in economics and the Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, Harvard University; Surin Pitsuwan, CMC alumnus and former Secretary General of ASEAN; Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Group; and James D. Wolfensohn, chairman, Wolfensohn & Company, L.L.C., and former president, The World Bank.

To learn more about The Kravis Prize, please visit www.kravisprize.org.

About Claremont McKenna College

Claremont McKenna College (CMC), established in 1946, prepares students for leadership in business, the professions, and public affairs through the liberal arts. The College is home to more than 130 accomplished teacher-scholars who are dedicated to teaching and to offering unparalleled opportunities for student collaboration in the research process. CMC combines need-blind admission, innovative programs, a nine-to-one student-faculty ratio, ten research institutes, and a strong and committed network of alumni, to educate its graduates for a lifetime of leadership. CMC is a member of The Claremont Colleges.

To learn more about Claremont McKenna College, please visit www.cmc.edu.

About Right To Play

Right To Play is a global organization that uses the transformative power of play to educate and empower children facing adversity. Through playing sports and games, Right To Play helps children in more than 20 countries to build essential life skills and better futures, while driving lasting social change. Founded in 2000 by four-time Olympic gold medalist and social entrepreneur Johann Olav Koss, Right To Play is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, and has national offices in Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and regional offices in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Its programs are facilitated by 590 international staff and nearly 12,000 volunteer coaches.

To learn more about Right To Play, please visit www.righttoplay.com.

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Play-based activities empower children to learn about their rights.

Right To Play has made its Child Protection resource Creating a Safer World: Child Rights, Participation and Protection free to download in both English and French.

Creating a Safer World was first developed to train Right To Play staff and volunteer Coaches around the world on child rights and protection. The manual provides comprehensive training on how to prevent and respond to child abuse, as well as how to create safe play environments where children can exercise their rights freely. Guided by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Creating a Safer World also provides a collection of 70 play-based learning activities that empower children to learn about and realize their rights.

“We are proud to be able to share one of our most significant resources with the broader community concerned with child protection and child rights,” says Johann Koss, President and CEO of Right To Play. “Our team has worked hard over the past five years to establish a standardized resource that can be used extensively by individuals and organizations focused on positive child development.”

Right To Play is a core member of the International Working Group on Safeguarding Children in Sport. The free distribution of Creating a Safer World represents its commitment to supporting other organizations and individuals’ child protection practices, and to building a community the enables safe environments.

Creating a Safer World is the first in a series of child protection and gender equality resources to be made available on www.righttoplay.com. The resource bundle consists of three manuals: a Trainer Manual; Participant Workbook and; a Play-Based Learning Manual that includes more than 70 games.

The resource targets those who want to supplement their knowledge and understanding of Child Protection and who want to learn how experiential learning can be used to enable sensitive conversations around child protection issues.

About Right To Play

Right To Play is a global organization that uses the transformative power of play to educate and empower children facing adversity. Through playing sports and games, Right To Play helps children in more than 20 countries to build essential life skills and better futures, while driving lasting social change. Founded in 2000 by four-time Olympic gold medalist and social entrepreneur Johann Olav Koss, Right To Play is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has national offices in Canada, the Netherlands, Norway Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our programs are facilitated by 590 international staff and nearly 12,000 volunteer Coaches. 

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For more information, please contact:

Kyla Pearson
Media and Communications Officer,
Right To Play International
Email: kpearson@righttoplay.com
Phone: +1 416 498-1922 x.240
www.righttoplay.com

(TEAM EUROSPORT (L TO R): VINCENT WIESER, CLAUDIA MORANDINI, JEAN PIERRE VIDAL, DIDIER COUCHE, AND KARI ANNE SAUDE.)

TORONTO, CANADA (February 11, 2013) – Twenty ski legends captained 20 teams for a charity race at the International Ski Federation’s (FIS) Alpine World Ski Championships Sunday, which raised €120,000 for Right To Play and the Austrian organization Österreichische Sporthilfe.  

Held in Schladming, Austria following the Ski World Cup, the charity event has become a popular fixture at FIS championships, with the 2013 installment attracting ski greats like Didier Cuche, Franz Klammer, Harti Weirather, Bernhard Russi, Janica Kostelic, Luc Alphand, Marco Büchel, Andreas Wenzel, and Pernilla Wiberg. Combined, the participating legends represented some 100 medals won at the FIS World Ski Championships or Olympic Winter Games.

“It’s wonderful to see the excitement of all of the participants and organizations that got involved with this race,” said Johann Koss, President and CEO of Right To Play. “We are grateful to FIS for using the World Championships as a venue to fundraise and spread the word about our work, and to all of the athletes for their efforts and enthusiasm.I’m so inspired by these ski legends’ return back on the slopes and to see how their passion and commitment to sport can be translated into real change for children around the world.”

Founded in 2000, Right To Play is a global organization that uses the transformative power of play to educate and empower children facing adversity. With competitors racing for bragging rights instead of medals, the greatest winners of Sunday’s event were the 835,000 children worldwide who access sport through Right To Play programs.

The 20 participating teams featured organizations such as FIS, OeSV, Audi, Longines, Eurosport, future Worlds Organizers Vail 2015 & St Moritz 2017, Milka, Deichmann and others.

Cheered on by a crowd of 3,000 the race was won by Team Eurosport lead by Swiss slopes legend Didier Cuche with Jean Pierre Vidal, Kari Anne Saude, Claudia Morandini and Vincent Wieser, a boy from the local ski club.

"I am very happy - this is the first race I have won since my retirement," said Cuche after his race against fellow former champion Kjetil Andre Aamodt.

As a part of its FIS coverage, Eurosport will air a short feature on Right To Play across 54 markets on Monday, February 11, 2013 at 19:00 CET

About Right To Play

Right To Play is a global organization that uses the transformative power of play to educate and empower children facing adversity. Through playing sports and games, Right To Play helps children in more than 20 countries to build essential life skills and better futures, while driving lasting social change. Founded in 2000 by four-time Olympic gold medalist and social entrepreneur Johann Olav Koss, Right To Play is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has national offices in Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and regional offices in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Our programs are facilitated by 590 international staff and nearly 12,000 volunteer Coaches.

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Erit Yellen
Director, US Athlete Relations and Public Relations
Right To Play USA                
Email:  eyellen@righttoplayusa.org                                        
Phone: +1 (818) 720-8459
www.righttoplayusa.org