Route 66-themed music video produced through the award-winning Kids in Focus program premieres October 28 at Lido Theater in Newport Beach
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (October 23, 2026) – The All-American Boys Chorus is set to premiere a Route 66-themed video at Lido Theater in Newport Beach on Wednesday, Oct. 28, with assistance from the Festival of Children Foundation’s award-winning Kids in Focus program.
The Foundation, an Orange County-based nonprofit organization that serves to bring together and coordinate the efforts of over 400 children’s charities, companies and individuals to improve the lives of children across the nation, was first introduced as an event in 2001 with the goal of bringing a few dozen charities together and presenting them to a wider audience.
“I saw that children’s charities just weren’t, back then, collaborating,” said Sandy Segerstrom Daniels, founder and executive director of the Festival of Children Foundation. “Collaboration was kind of a dirty word back then; everybody had to have their own autonomy, and the need was getting more and more that groups really needed to learn how to work together, but nobody really showed them how.
“As my mom and dad would say, ‘you put them in the sandbox and make them play with one another.’ That’s kind of the idea behind the Festival, was putting them in an area where they could learn about each other, and that the public could be in one area and learn about them.”
After two years of running as an event, Daniels decided to officially establish the foundation in 2003. Since then, the organization has been able to distribute $6.5 million to charities across the United States, grant 900 charity leaders with online training through the Foundation’s educational podcasts and introduced 48 million people to various children’s charities, according to its website.
The Foundation later created the Kids in Focus program, a program set to help organizations produce professional videos to connect the charities to a new and wider audience. Over the years, the Kids in Focus program has created 30 unique projects across 15 states and earned two Telly Awards for its nonprofit video work. They have worked with charities including Make-A-Wish Idaho, Inspiration Ranch, Girls on the Run, and now, the All-American Boys Chorus.
“The Festival of Children Foundation is a wonderful organization that is experienced in helping many, many other organizations come to fulfill their mission in ways that they haven’t even thought about,” said Wesley Martin, the artistic director for the All-American Boys Chorus. “The project that I brought to the Festival of Children Foundation, the pitch that I made to them, I had no idea that it was gonna turn into this thing, and it’s way better than what I could have conceived it to be. So, I highly recommend the Festival of Children.”
In honor of the historic highway’s 100th birthday, the All-American Boys Chorus, an elite boys’ music education non-profit organization established in 1970 in Anaheim, turned to the Kids in Focus program to help celebrate Route 66’s historic achievement through song.
The video displays an array of images spanning across Route 66 with the boys singing the famous “(Get your kicks on) Route 66” — first recorded 80 years ago by Nat King Cole — in front of them.
“Instead of flying the boys around to different parts of Route 66, we filmed them in different groups in front of a green screen and composite them into the shots in such a way that it really communicated ‘fun,’” Martin said. “We’re not trying to be 100% realistic, like we’re really there, but we’re having a lot of fun with this, and that’s a big part of what the boys’ chorus is about: enjoyment and fun. If we’re not having fun when we do these projects, performances and rehearsals, then what are we doing?”
The All-American Boys Chorus Route 66 video will be premiered on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Lido Theater in Newport Beach.
For those looking to donate or help children’s charities within their communties, more information is available at the Festival of Children Foundation’s website, including a “Members Directory” map of all participating charities across the United States.
— Carroll is a Daily Pilot contributor.
Read the full story in the Daily Pilot
About Festival of Children Foundation
Festival of Children Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that brings together and coordinates the efforts of charities, companies and individuals who work to improve the lives of children. One hundred percent of the Foundation’s administrative costs are covered by designated funding, allowing donations to go further in direct support of programs and services that improve the lives of children nationwide. For more information, visit https://festivalofchildren.org/.
Contact: Cassady Taylor
Festival of Children Foundation
(714) 438 – 3205
ctaylor@festivalofchildren.org
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