Sesame Street Star Elmo greets fans at the end of The Sesame Street/USO Experience at the Community Center aboard Camp Foster Tuesday. The show is currently on tour throughout the Pacific with the last Okinawa show taking place Feb. 3 on Camp Courtney. The tour then moves to Korea and then Guam. (Matt Orr/Stars and Stripes)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Hundreds of excited Sesame Street fans cheered as Zoe, Rosita, Grover, Cookie Monster and Elmo walked onto the stage Tuesday at Camp Foster’s community center.
Children and parents were soon singing and dancing along with the life-size Muppets.
The Sesame Street/USO Experience is touring Pacific bases with a message geared toward military families.
“The idea behind the show is to give kids and parents ideas on how to deal with deployments and get through some of the tough times,” said USO tour manager Lonnie Cooper. “Things like telling stories, singing songs, and letter writing.”
As they entered the auditorium, children were given a toy and a Sesame Street Deployment Kit, full of information and a CD on coping with deployments.
As the show wrapped up after 30 minutes, children rushed to the front of the stage to meet the characters.
“I thought it was great,” said Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Sheldon McClendon, who was at the show with his wife and kids. “Short as it was, it had some really informative information for kids.”
