Hollywood celebrated the power of 18 last night as Declare Yourself, the national nonpartisan, nonprofit youth voter initiative aimed at empowering and encouraging America's 18-year-olds to register and vote in the 2008 primaries and general election, presented a spectacular star-studded event. Held at the historic Beverly Hills Post Office (currently the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts), and presented by newly announced campaign sponsor, Cricket Communications, Inc., the unforgettable night was hosted by Declare Yourself founder Norman Lear with popular television star Hayden Panettiere ("Heroes").
Celebrating the rite of passage of turning 18-years-old, guests of all ages registered to vote and shared inspirational stories about the power of participation in democracy. The evening culminated with a live musical performance of Alice Cooper's classic, "I'm Eighteen," re-imagined as a rousing anthem by Chester Bennington, lead vocalist of Grammy-winning, multi-platinum rock band Linkin Park, who joined Camp Freddy members Chris Chaney, Dave Navarro, Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction and Billy Morrison of The Cult. Afterward, guests danced the night away as actor/rapper/comedian Nick Cannon spun as special guest DJ.
"Hollywood Celebrates 18" drew some of today's most influential celebrities including Kristin Bell, Chester Bennington, Chris Chaney, Sasha Cohen, Nick Cannon, Lauren Conrad, Nick D'Agosto, Julianne Hough, Dave Lieberman, Seth MacFarlane, Heidi Montag, Billy Morrison, Dave Navarro, Adrian Pasdar, Stephen Perkins, Plain White T's, Zachary Quinto, Romeo, Justin Timberlake and Rumer Willis.
"When you consider there will be four million 18-year-olds in the country in 2008, one vote can have an enormous impact," said Lear. "Everyone involved in Declare Yourself -- whether it's our celebrity friends or corporate partners -- are steadfast in reaching our goal of getting every eligible 18-year to register and vote in the upcoming 2008 election."
At the event, all guests were able to register to vote under an over-sized 10 foot-high birthday cake outfitted with voter registration kiosks. Lauren Conrad used the online registration tool at http://www.declareyourself.com/. Attendees were also treated to a special viewing of an original copy of the Declaration of Independence -- one of 200 printed on July 4, 1776 provided by Mr. Lear himself.
In addition to announcing Cricket's role as Declare Yourself's presenting sponsor, Mr. Lear also revealed that Declare Yourself's 2007-8 campaign will be supported by new partners Starbucks, HarperCollins Publishers, UWIRE and Voto Latino. Details regarding the activation of these partnerships will be forthcoming.
Declare Yourself patriotically re-launched the week of 4th of July, with a multi-tiered platform aimed at engaging young Americans in the voting process. Major partners include Cricket (Presenting Sponsor), Yahoo! (Premier Online Information Partner), MySpace (Premier Social Networking Partner), Google, Evite, GOOD, Clear Channel, Comedy Central and American Eagle Outfitters. With their support, Declare Yourself is positioned to drive millions of young adults to its online voter registration tool and to the polls. Declare Yourself registered more than 1.2 million young people (ages 18-29) in the 2004 and 2006 elections.
