CNN To Host "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" at ODU

CNN will be on the Old Dominion University campus Wednesday, Nov. 12, hosting a rally for Norfolk resident Carolyn LeCroy, who has been nominated for the CNN Hero of the Year award.

The event, which will be held at 11 a.m. in the North Mall in Webb University Center, is open to all Old Dominion faculty, staff and students as well as community members.

The rally will be filmed for  "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," launched last year to spotlight ordinary citizens accomplishing extraordinary deeds, and airing on Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT).

LeCroy, who was named a CNN HEROES honoree last month for her work helping incarcerated parents stay connected with their children, will be awarded $25,000 - and is eligible for the $100,000 prize that will be bestowed upon the CNN Hero of the Year later this month.

This year's Top 10 CNN Heroes, as selected by the Blue Ribbon Panel, were unveiled by Anderson Cooper on CNN's American Morning last month. The public will select the "CNN Hero of the Year" via voting at the CNN Heroes site at www.CNN.com/Heroes through Wednesday, Nov. 19.

At the November gala, CNN will honor the 10 heroes and reveal the CNN Hero of the Year. In its second year, the multiplatform initiative received nearly 4,000 submissions from 75 countries.

While serving time in prison for drug-possession, Carolyn LeCroy witnessed first-hand the devastating impact incarceration has on relationships between inmates and their children. After being paroled in 1996, LeCroy decided to take a bad situation and turn it into something positive. Using her background as a film and video producer, LeCroy started The Messages Project. In December 1999, she and volunteer camera crews were granted admission to Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Troy, Virginia. There, they recorded video messages with mothers to be mailed to their children and families as Christmas gifts. Since then, The Messages Project has worked in six state prisons at least three times a year. LeCroy and volunteers have recorded roughly 3,000 video messages, stories, poems and wishes from inmates to their children and families.