- Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the 2012 So the World May Hear Awards Gala.
- [singing] Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh...
- I am delighted to be back at the Starkey Gala.
- This is Glenn Frey's guitar,
which Steve Martin assured me
Glenn has owned since early today.
- Look on the back. If it's from the '80s...
[sniffs] Thank you. - That's good.
All right, what should we start the bidding?
A million 5.
- A million 5. - A million 5 for the guitar.
- That's 4 Euros, for those of you doing the exchange rate.
- Please welcome world-renowned vocal artist Wintley Phipps.
- [singing] Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost
But now I'm found
Was blind but now I see
[applause]
- Right now it's my pleasure to introduce,
at the young age of 12,
Jackie Evancho.
- [singing in foreign language]
[applause]
- We would like to introduce to you...
- The first nominee, John Johnson.
John's impact spanned the globe.
He changed our world pursuing his interest and passion:
agriculture.
- Driven by his personal motto
that no child should go to bed hungry,
I am particularly proud that, through his leadership role,
my dad was able to do things
like ship 200 tons of flour products
to war tour Afghanistan.
And with that, John Johnson.
[applause]
- The good Lord gave us two ears,
which means we should listen twice as much as we talk,
and you have a special gift by now making sure
that more people can use those two ears and hear.
My passion was to make sure no child went hungry.
Bill, yours is, make sure the world can hear.
Let's join efforts and make that world.
Congratulations. Thank you.
- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Michael Johns.
- [singing] Asking me will my love grow
But I don't know
I don't know
Hey!
I stick around, now it may show
But I don't know
I don't know
Oooh
- When you talk about Glenn and Mindy Stearns,
you are talking about an amazing couple.
The joy of giving is what it's all about,
and these two are big-time givers.
They serve on 12 nonprofit boards.
Economically, they're strong.
They've got success everywhere,
but success to them is giving back.
Glenn and Mindy Stearns.
[applause]
- We had the honor of being on a mission with Tani and Bill,
and it was life-changing.
Seeing a little girl in a seat
putting a hearing aid in for the first time
and watching her eyes light up, and then looking at her mother,
and it's just tears, and you're crying,
and you're celebrating.
- The sound of my own child's voice is the sweetest sound.
To give this gift to mothers
that get to hear their children for the first time
what a gift, Bill and Tani, you are giving to the world
to mothers, to children.
Thank you so much.
- Please welcome an original founding member of the Eagles,
Glenn Frey.
- [singing] You know we got it easy
We ought to take it easy
Yeah
Thanks, everybody.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
- Please welcome Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers.
[lively bluegrass music]
- [singing] I'm walking away
- My best friends all had warned me
- I'm walking away
- Even your mom said you were nuts
- In my dreams
- You wear a red cape and a pitchfork
- I'm walking away
Jubilation day
[lively bluegrass music]
[applause]
- We have seen Maria Bello take on larger-than-life roles.
In the wake of the 2010 earthquake,
Maria opened clinics.
She helped us to get back on our feet.
Today, We Advance helped close to 30,000 people a year.
Please welcome Maria Bello on stage.
- I'm really proud to be a part of the Starkey family.
I've known Tani for a year and a half.
The first time I met her was their mission in Haiti,
where I saw them fit a five-year-old patient boy
who had never spoken and never heard,
and the first "bah, bah, bah" he said
was looking into Tani's smiling face.
Thank you.
- Please welcome Mr. Billy Ray Cyrus.
- [singing] You can tell my arms
Go back into the farm
Or you can tell my feet to hit the floor
Or you can tell my lips to tell my fingertips
They won't be reaching out for you no more
Let me hear ya now.
Don't tell my heart
My achy, breaky heart
I just don't think he'd understand
And if you tell my heart
My achy, breaky heart
He might blow up and kill this man
Oooh
Yeah!
Whoo!
Yes!
- Please welcome Okello Sam and Forest Whitaker.
[plucking playful tune]
- [singing in foreign language]
[applause]
Thank you.
- For decades, Sister Rosemary openly defied
the brutal violence of Joseph Kony and his guerrilla army.
Where Kony has decimated Uganda,
Sister Rosemary has rebuilt it.
More than 2,000 girls who were kidnapped
and orphaned by the LRA have found refuge
at St. Monica's Tailoring School in Uganda
guided by Sister Rosemary.
[applause]
Please join me in welcoming with honor,
Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe.
[applause]
- Thank you very much for this great honor
which I'm receiving today.
It is so humbling for me,
because I know I cannot measure up to what you do.
In my society, the people with hearing loss are put aside.
They are the most disadvantaged people.
You are bringing hope.
You are giving a great gift to people.
I thank you all.
[applause]
- The 42nd President of the United States
needs little introduction.
Thank you. Bye.
[laughter]
It is my pleasure to introduce you
to the honorable 42nd President of the United States,
and probably the best president we've ever had in my life,
William Jefferson Clinton.
[applause]
- Bill and Tani Austin,
they've built this hugely successful company
and decided the real purpose of their life
was to empower other people to live their lives.
And now, every single year,
they give the gift of hearing to more than 100,000 people.
I think somehow falling into their orbit
has been one of the single most important things
that has happened to me,
one of the greatest gifts I have received
since I left the White House.
Thank you for what you do to give it to them.
Bless you.
[applause]
- I have the distinct honor of introducing our next person.
Bill Austin has been a father to me, a mentor, and role model.
He's taken us on our first mission in 1997 to El Salvador.
15 years later and over a million lives changed,
you know that path has led us here tonight.
He's one of the reasons I am who I am today.
Ladies and gentlemen, Bill Austin.
[applause]
- I'm just honored to be in a room with so many good people,
so many good people.
The best people I know are the people right here.
Together we have the strength
to create the critical mass necessary to change the world.
We have to make an investment in tomorrow,
the investment in young people that will be the future.
Thank you for letting me be with you.
[applause]
- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome K'naan.
- [singing] It's not far away
But for now we say
When I get older, I will be stronger
They'll call me freedom just like a wavin' flag
And then it goes back, and then it goes back
And then it goes back, and then it goes
When I get older, I will be stronger
They'll call me freedom just like a wavin' flag
And then it goes back, and then it goes back
And then it goes back
Oh-oh-oh
Thank you very much.
[cheers and applause]
I'm just gonna take a minute and let it ride
I'm just gonna take a minute and let it breathe