DAYTIME EMMY AWARDS To Air From LV June 19, Features DAYTIME CARES

The Daytime Emmy® Awards will present the Daytime Cares segment showcasing Smile Train, the world's largest cleft repair charity, featuring Dean Cain, Erik Estrada and Tatyana Ali. The three stars recently visited a Smile Train center in Mexico to experience firsthand the work that the organization does every day around the world in over 75 countries. The telecast will broadcast live from the Las Vegas Hilton, Sunday, June 19 (8:00-10:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Smile Train's mission is to empower local medical professionals to provide timely, free, safe, quality and cost-effective cleft treatments for the millions of poor children around the world who suffer from cleft lip and/or palate. Smile Train has provided over 655,000 free cleft surgeries since its founding in 1999. The work that Smile Train does allows a child a second chance at life with a surgery that costs as little as $250 and takes just 45 minutes.

Cain, Estrada and Ali spent time with Smile Train doctors Dr. Rodolfo Trejo and Dr Rafa Ruiz, who devote themselves to forever changing the course of a child's life. Additionally, the stars had the opportunity to connect with the children who received or were about to receive free surgery provided by Smile Train. During this time, they experienced the sorrow and suffering of these children and their families, as well as witnessed the transformation and hope that comes with a cleft repair.

According to Smile Train, clefts are a major problem in developing countries where there are millions of children suffering from unrepaired clefts. Most cannot eat or speak properly, aren't allowed to attend school or hold a job, and face very difficult lives filled with shame and isolation, pain and heartache. Their clefts usually go untreated because they are too poor to pay for a simple surgery that has been around for decades.

Daytime Cares, a theme of this year's Daytime Emmy Awards, showcases the compassionate work of the Daytime community, which aids in identifying and exposing humanitarian issues that call attention to societal support. Portions of the Daytime Cares footage, featuring the Daytime stars, will be presented throughout the telecast in order to generate awareness.

Associated Television International (ATI) will produce the show with ATI President and Emmy Award-winning producer David McKenzie as executive producer, along with Al Schwartz and Jim Romanovich. Chris Donovan will direct and Ken Shapiro is the writer.

The Daytime Emmy Awards recognize outstanding achievement in all fields of daytime television production. THE 38TH ANNUAL DAYTIME EMMY AWARDS is a presentation of NATAS in cooperation with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

About Smile Train
Founded in 1999, Smile Train is the world's largest cleft charity with over 2,600 partner surgeons operating in over 1,100 partner hospitals in over 75 countries - many of the world's poorest. Smile Train provides free cleft lip and cleft palate surgery to children from poor families that give a child not just a new smile, but a chance at a new life. For more information please go to www.smiletrain.org.

Need more Las Vegas Theatre News in your life?
Sign up for all the news on the Spring season, discounts & more...