Elmo, Sesame Street Gang Encourage Military Kids to Fight off Post-Pandemic Stress

A friend of Elmo joins the gang in teaching military children how to deal with the stress they are currently struggling with caused by the pandemic.

Ricardo is a friendly puppet monster with light blue fur. His character in the long-time favorite children's TV show "Sesame Street" is a disabled veteran who encounters hard days yet always finds to see the positive and "good within the bleak." He is loved by both children and adults for his famous "went wells" despite the hard days.

And, now Ricardo can bring his light and positivity to military kids and parents as he joins Elmo and the Sesame Street gang in new wellness content, Military News reported.

These contents are exclusively made for military kids and their parents who were "shaken by the pandemic" as they move forward and continue with their not-so-normal military family routines and realities.

This initiative was announced Thursday and will be under the Sesame Street for Military Families program.

Self-care and staying positive

Sesame Street for Military Families is a program that started in 2006, which aims to help about 700,000 kids under five years old with military parents cope with unexpected deployments, continuous residence and school moves, homecomings, and general uncertainty.

They are adding it to their list of goals to help the kids overcome the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as closed school buildings, online classes, isolation from families and friends, the virus itself, and its other long-term consequences.

The new resources will highlight general aspects of wellness and will teach military families how to take on their already uncertain lives, plus the effects of the pandemic.

"Prioritizing self-care and staying focused on the positive can feel difficult some days. However, the healthier the entire family is in mind and body, the more energy, patience and support they will have for one another and their community. Every little moment of self-care can have a big impact," expressed Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop's senior vice president of U.S. social impact, which is what the new wellness content will focus on.

Read also: 'Sesame Street' Makes History By Adding New Asian American Muppet

Operating without work permits

These new resources are in digital form, which consist of five videos featuring the friendly muppet monster gang of Sesame Street, headed by one of its most popular characters Elmo, who is part of a military family.

The vice president of U.S. social impact at Sesame Workshop, Rocío Galarza, in his guesting in the Military.com's podcast the Fire Watch, stated that the characters of Sesame Street would be modeling simple strategies on self-care and finding positivity in uncertain, hard days. This will allow military kids to see themselves in what the characters are going through and encourage them and their parents to learn how to incorporate these strategies into their daily lives.

They promise to make the videos understandable and entertaining for the children, which is very easy for Sesame Street to do as they are so good at doing this.

Parents have also been reassured that these new contents, which are also available in Spanish, will add to the already available resources like games and printables under the program that will help their children deal with military life.

Galarza further emphasized that aside from the encouragement, the Sesame Workshop resources are an "air of healing as the pandemic begins to fade." People behind the resources acknowledge that the stressors are real, even for the children who feel the stress. Thus, they want to place the kids in an environment with "nurturing and comforting connections" between them and their parents because children bounce back in settings like this.

Related Article: 'Sesame Street' Puppeteer for New Character With Autism Wants To Do a Roadshow