[Ellen Pompeo] To present the Emma Future Award to Elizabeth Olsen,
please welcome two sisters who will make us all feel better about the future,
the founders of the latitude project, Jennifer and Alanna Tynan.
[Jennifer Tynan] We are thrilled to stand together tonight to help honor our beloved spokesperson,
board member and friend Elizabeth Olsen received the EMA futures award tonight.
[Alanna Tynan] Lizzie has already made the world of difference in our lives and in our work to
help others. Standing here today fills us with an immense gratitude for our own good fortune
and the opportunity that we have to make the world a better place by facing the future together. So,
we could not be more happier, grateful to present this Emma Futures Award to Elizabeth Olsen.
[Elizabeth Olsen] Hi, I'm really scared of public speaking.
So, I brought this as a comfort blanket, but I'm going to try and use this. I want to thank
Alanna and Jen for being here. They live in Canada, and there's, I'm feel really
fortunate because there's no reason for me to be here without them. It wouldn't make sense.
I wanna thank EMA and Debbie for thinking to honor me at all, and for the vote of confidence. It's
really meaningful to, to be here tonight in such spectacular company, including Ms. Jane Fonda,
who played my grandmother in my first film, like nine or ten years ago.
You are such an inspiration to women of all generations. So, thank you for your life work.
So, I wanted to take the time up here just to celebrate Jen and Alanna and the work they do.
Like they said, we met in Nicaragua and I was supposed to be on a vacation
and they were working very hard. And I did, I joined them on a day trip where we
distributed school supplies and recreational materials and played soccer with the kids.
And it was a school that they'd built. But it was on our drive back
from visiting the school that we stopped at one of the, one of the poorest homes within the
incredibly impoverished community. This man Arielle, his home was
maybe 200 square feet, walls built of various materials, a tarp for a roof and the dirt as
his floor. And he was the happiest man when he saw Alanna and Jen, and they were there to bring him
his children's school uniforms beause you have to wear a uniform in school in Nicaragua.
And he wanted to share with us his animals and his home. And he would call the Tynan sisters,
his angels. And it was then that I could recognise the impact that they have had
on so many individuals within Nicaragua and the communities that they've been helping.
So, I'm sharing this story because it represents to me what The Latitude Project is, whether it is
building roofs, latrines, well, pumps that are safe for children,
schools, water filters. They also have provided the first health care program
for hundreds of families that had never had access to it in their life.
Jen and Alanna have inspired and empowered every individual they work with. They don't
enter these communities as saviors, but as partners and friends.
And they always ask, like they said, the communities,
what they need, and then they together with the people build that. There is no imperialism.
And just to witness the gratitude these communities have for the sisters
has been the greatest gift and encouragement.
The Latitude Project builds not just physical structures, but hope and pride. And at our event
tonight surrounded by all these storytellers, I believe that there is a story worth telling
and what EMA does so well and uniquely is strongly encourage and educate our most
powerful storytellers to use their voice and power, to spread the word of unknown
known stories like the latitude.
I'm going to read what I wrote actually. So, the real-life superheroes, like the Tynan's who fight
the daily fight to help contribute to this planet we all share and all the people with whom we share
it. And so, in the name of that spirit of making our planet a better and more sustainable place,
I'm very proud to accept this and I'll try to justify it, and your faith in me. So, thank you
for having me here tonight and allowing me to take this clumsy time to honor these incredible women.