Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick at Center for Common Ground Gala

inviting our next very special speakers oh yes actor and activist very important Kevin Bacon and Kira Sedwick now we know them both as actors okay who doesn't remember Foot Loose who didn't try to do those dances and then probably hurt your ankle so um Kevin is an actor he's a producer he's a director he's won many awards um and oh Golden Globes Screen Actor Guild and Emmy um yes remember Foot Loose Apollo 13 A Few Good Men and Mystic River now one of my favorite things that I remember you from with your daughter is the ionic 6 commercial and he's like oh you remember that yes I do now IR Sedwick she's an actress she's a producer and a director um she's the winner of a People's Choice Award and an Emmy um I loved the closer that was fantastic um and they're married and they have two phenomenal children Travis and suu and they're here tonight because they are social justice Warriors thank you for joining us again thank you so much Andrea we're so happy to be here we feel really I feel really humbled by hearing everyone tonight uh there's so much great work that you guys do um and I love those statistics of where you guys have been able to touch into and get help people to know their rights as voters um you know we hear it all the time but nothing could be more true than the fact that this is the most important election of Our Lives whether it's for the presidential race but also down ballot and one of the great rights of being an American is that we live in a democracy and that we get to make our voices heard that there is a government for the People by the people and that we are allowed to vote in or out people that we think are going to be good for America um it's so devastating to me and so it's surprising on one level of course not surprising at all that there's so much voter suppression but the only way that we can combat that is to face it head on understand what the enemy is and help through education and that's what you guys do over and over again and it's so incredibly impressive Rive and not only are you creating um an education and for for people to understand what their rights are as voters but you're also creating a safe place a place for Community a place for people to come together to you know get fed if they need to get fed to have you know that there's food banks and there's way help uh filing taxes Etc I mean and all these things cost money so we're so happy to be here to asked very nicely for um some money from everyone that is here today along with a celebration you know really it's boots on the ground it's training volunteers and it's really helping to get the word out and all of that is expensive and all of that costs money and we feel really grateful to be here tonight to be able to ask for that for you guys and to celebrate what an incredible what incredible work you guys are doing every day I would also just well the first thing I would say is there's there's three words that uh I've always tried to live uh a great portion of my Life by and those words are what she said uh you know that that's that that's what keeps me on the straight and narrow so I agree with everything that that Kira said about the work that you're doing and also about the raising money we just made a a small donation ourselves um you know I I I remember I grew up in Philadelphia and right in the center of of of the city and I would go on voting day with my mother to the booth and I think when I was I could be wrong about this but I think when I was very very young she would have to bring me in because she couldn't leave me all alone and I would see her you know pull those levers and then later on it just seemed like I was always with her when my father was working but but I was always with her when she was doing theot and it was so there was something so kind of um magical about it you know to see uh her you know taking control just of those levers and see all the people that were there who looked some like us and some not like us who all had the ability to go and you know use their voices when I first heard about uh the idea of voter suppression when I was a young man I was like this is crazy like like like it's so it's it's it is impossible to defend the idea that you would not let certain people vote in this country there's no defense for it it's despicable so the work that you are doing to uh W with the with with the letter writing in all of those States whether they Battleground States or not just to get people out and motivated and being there to pull the lever or however you do it now uh is really or write in or you know is really inspirational and we support everything you're doing 100% and uh keep up the great work thanks so much for inviting us tonight thank you yeah