From Genealogy.com web site:
Swiss National Day Celebration at Ellis Island Saturday - Featuring
Jeweltion-at-ellis-island-saturday-featuring-jewel-5391>
7/27/2006 The Swiss are having a holiday on Ellis Island this weekend. I
rather wish I'd heard about this earlier. I would like to have attended. I
too, have Swiss roots
New York (PRWEB via PR Web Direct) July 27, 2006 International pop star
Jewel will put her Swiss roots on display with a
performance at the Swiss National Day celebration on Ellis
Island,
Saturday, July 29, 2006, from 12:15 to 1:00 honoring Switzerland's 715th
birthday. The event, presented by www.swissroots.org will also feature the
newly designed exhibition, "Small Number - Big Impact," a lively
presentation of Swiss immigration history to the U.S. that will run at Ellis
Island until October 31, 2006 and is organized by "The Association for a
Swiss Migration Museum." Swiss Minister of Culture, Federal Councilor Pascal
Couchepin, will officially open the exhibition, and will deliver the Swiss
National
Daykeynote
address. Furthermore, Swiss
National
Daywill
showcase a wide range of Swiss entertainers, exhibits, and culinary
delicacies.
Proud of her Swiss heritage, Jewel decided, much like Pittsburgh Steelers'
Ben Roethlisberger, to join "Swiss
Roots,"
a program that seeks to inspire Americans to connect with Switzerland, and
she will become a "Swiss Roots" spokesperson. She says: "I was raised aware
of my Swiss roots, singing traditional songs and eating traditional food. I
even have a Swiss passport." As a Swiss-born American, Jewel's father, Atz
Kilcher, with whom she will perform at Swiss National Day, helped
familiarize his daughter with her family's Swiss heritage.
Jewel became aware of Swiss Roots through the makers of "Small Number - Big
Impact
,"
and is one of the celebrities featured in the exhibition at Ellis
Island.
Others include Marc Forster
(Oscar-winning film maker), Adolf
Rickenbacker (inventor of the
electric guitar), Albert
Gallatinl>(finance
minister under President Thomas
Jefferson ), Elisabeth
K|bler-Ross
(psychiatrist
and death researcher), Louis
Chevrolet (racing driver and
car maker), Robert Frank
(photographer), Andreas
Dietsch (early socialist), Othmar
H. Amman (bridge
builder) and General Johann August
Sutter(adventurer). The
exhibition also includes the "Swiss Forum," a lounge in
which visitors have access to Internet stations enabling Swiss-ancestry
genealogical searches. In addition, a comprehensive exhibition catalogue
will be on sale at the Ellis Island Museum's book shop.
*About "Swiss Roots"*
"Swiss Roots" brings the United States and Switzerland closer together
through activities that foster dialogue and understanding, through online
exchanges and live events. The program's centerpiece, www.swissroots.org, is
a state-of-the-art website that serves as a tool for more than one million
Americans of Swiss descent to discover their ancestral roots, and as a
gateway for those curious about Switzerland to discover and communicate with
the Swiss people. The "Swiss Roots" website was launched officially on March
29 at the Embassy of
Switzerlandin
Washington,
D.C., and will be active well into the future.
Featuring various events throughout the United States, "Swiss Roots"
showcases the best in Swiss innovation, culture, history, education, and
business. The project is managed by the Consulate General of Switzerland in
New York and the official Swiss representations in the U.S., in cooperation
with numerous local Swiss associations. "Swiss Roots" is coordinated
by Presence
Switzerland (the Swiss Government's
country branding agency) and supported by Switzerland
Tourism(the
official Swiss tourist board) and Pro
Helvetia (the Swiss Arts
Council). The program is additionally sponsored by private sector companies
such as Swiss Helvetia Fund , Swiss International Air
Lines and Swiss
Post
.
About Jewel
An accomplished and world-renowned singer, songwriter, poet, and painter,
Jewel has continued to explore fresh musical avenues, branching out from her
folk roots to incorporate rock, pop, country, blues, jazz, and classical
influences into her work. Jewel's personal odyssey, partly chronicled on her
landmark 12-times platinum debut, "Pieces of You," comes to full flower on
"Goodbye Alice in Wonderland," her most recent album which was released in
May. Marking her first album in three years and sixth all told the
collection is her most autobiographical work in more than a decade, tracing
her path from the extreme solitude of Alaska to the extreme joys and
pitfalls of fame. "Goodbye Alice in Wonderland" follows 2003's "0304," which
debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 album chart, simultaneously becoming both
the highest-debuting and highest-charting album of her career to date, while
also marking her fourth album to hit the top ten on the national charts. To
date, Jewel has sold over 25 million albums worldwide, enjoying career
longevity rare among her generation of artists.