Last week I braved the not so fun blizzard that plagued New York City and attended the USA Character’s Approved party in Chelsea. The Character’s Approved Awards honor those who are out there and changing the world a little at a time in various fields. This year the honorees have been from several different categories and overall I would say well deserving the honor. The full list is below:

• Art – Kehinde Wiley
• Architecture – Angela Brooks
• Design – Yves Behar
• Fashion – Narcisco Rodriguez
• Film – Kathryn Bigelow
• Food – Dan Barber
• Giving – Jessica Jackley
• Music – Green Day
• New Media – Alex Rigopulos & Eran Egozy
• Writing – Nora Ephron

Arriving at the party I must admit I was a bit overwhelmed as this was the first big Manhattan party I’ve attended. There were tall models, several actors and of course the indoor red carpet line as well as many, many other guests. There was a good amount of time to mingle with guests and partake of the refreshments before the ceremonies got underway.

They spoke about each winner and their accomplishments: from compelling documentary filmmaking, the design of a $100 laptop for underpriviledged children, and the creation popular games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. A nice video with all of the winners talking was shown on a big screen which I really enjoyed because you were able to hear from the nominees themselves about why they do what they do. It was all pretty inspiring.

After the video presentation, the cast from the Green Day musical “American Idiot” was introduced to perform for everyone. It was a great performance, and they did three songs from the show. After they performed, everyone went back to mingling and I was able to talk with a few of the guys who were all very nice and very enthusiastic about the show as well as the band. Admittedly I was skeptical about the show at first, but I think that it may be a pretty good show and I’m sure I’ll wind up seeing it on Broadway sooner or later.

All in all it was a pretty fun event to attend and I look forward to see who they plan to nominate for the next set of awards!