Ellis Island Family Heritage Award Presented To Mel Brooks

Comedic filmmaker, producer, and director, Mel Brooks; suspense novelist Mary Higgins Clark; University of Miami President Donna E. Shalala; and business magazine clan, The Forbes Family, are this year's distinguished honorees who will be recognized during the Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards to be held on Thursday, April 17, 2008 in the Great Hall at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Lynn Sherr, Emmy-winning journalist and correspondent for ABC-TV's "20/20," will serve as Master of Ceremonies, while Lee A. Iacocca, Founding Chairman of The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. will present the awards.

In its seventh year, the Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards are hosted by The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation to celebrate exemplary Ellis Island/Port of New York immigrants or their descendents who have made a major contribution to the American experience. Each of the honorees will receive a copy of the original ship's passenger manifest, which documents their ancestor's arrival, and also serves as symbol of their journey, courage and determination, and the impressive mark their descendants have made on this "Nation of Immigrants." These manifests are among the 25 million passenger arrival records available at the American Family Immigration History Center® and its website, www.ellisisland.org. For more information on the Awards, visit www.ellisisland.org/genealogy/ellis_island_2005_heritage_awards.asp.