Major kids media artists and organizations are getting behind KEPYR’s (Kids Entertainment Professionals for Young Refugees) 2025 “Kindred Spirits” campaign in support of refugee children in camps and shelters in Mexico.
Contributions of original Lucha Libre-themed art by renowned comics and animation artists including Jorge Gutierrez (The Book of Life, El Tigre, Maya and the Three), Matt Groening (The Simpsons, Futurama, Disenchantment), Dan Brereton (Nocturnals) and Eisner-nominated Ben 10 co-creator Dave Johnson will highlight the campaign’s eBay auction, which is organized and curated by writer and producer Henry Gilroy.
Additionally, mixers in Los Angeles and New York will be co-presented by LatinX in Animation and Children’s Media Association respectively. Maca Rotter, President of La Panaderia Licensing and Marketing and 2024 Licensing International Hall of Fame inductee, will host an event in Mexico City.
“This is our ninth year producing this campaign and it’s incredibly humbling and exciting to see more and more creative all-stars and major industry organizations join with hundreds of their colleagues, friends and fans to support it. And given the current political climate and recent severe cutbacks in foreign aid it’s never been more critical for us to come together as a community to demonstrate our solidarity with all children everywhere.”
KEPYR’s 2025 campaign will benefit La Jugarretta, a Mexican nonprofit providing safe spaces and play-based psychosocial support for refugee and forcibly displaced children in camps and shelters in Mexico since 2017. Its play and arts-based approach to the treatment of the psychological trauma induced by forced displacement is supported by Trauma Research Foundation findings as well as by children’s media child development experts like Dr. Amanda Gummer.
All details about the auction, the mixers, and direct donation options are available at www.kepyr.org
Honored by the White House in 2021 with a President’s Volunteer Service Award for “dedicated service to children around the world,” KEPYR was founded by industry professionals in 2017 to spread awareness in the children’s media community about the global child refugee crisis and to rally its support for local frontline organizations doing inspiring work for forcibly displaced children.
KEPYR’s Board of Directors is comprised of Grant Moran, Yang Chang, Scott Gray, Monica Dollive, and Juliette Rogasik. Serving on KEPYR’s Advisory Board are Christopher Keenan, Jean Thoren, Greg Payne, Jo Kavanagh-Payne, Maca Rotter, Danielle Gillis, Martin Baynton, Gushi Sethi, Sabrina Propper, Dave Palmer, and Baman Rusby.
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