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Actor, TV news anchor stand tall for injured troops

Cause Celeb talks with TV news anchor Chris Cuomo and actor Joel McHale about their support for the Bob Woodruff Foundation, a nonprofit that helps injured servicemembers.
Image: Joel McHale at Stand Up for Heroes 2010 with retired Marine Cpl. Aaron Mankin, right, and his mother Diana Phelps
Joel McHale at Stand Up for Heroes 2010 with retired Marine Cpl. Aaron Mankin, right, and his mother Diana Phelps, at The Beacon Theatre on Nov. 3 in New York City. Mike Coppola / Getty Images file
/ Source: NBC News

Cause Celeb highlights celebrities' work with charities and organizations. We recently spoke with Chris Cuomo and Joel McHale at Stand Up for Heroes 2010. The event, which kicked off The New York Comedy Festival, supported the Bob Woodruff Foundation, a nonprofit that helps injured servicemembers reintegrate into their communities. The foundation and its website, , educate people about the needs of returning injured troops and raise money to support them.

McHale is an actor, television personality and comedian, best known for his work on NBC’s “Community” and the E! Networks “The Soup.” Cuomo is a news anchor for ABC’s “Good Morning America” and hosts “20/20.”

Q: Why, when there are so many different charities out there, is this one really important to support?

Cuomo: Bob and Lee Woodruff have really put together a special organization. There are a lot of organizations, and one of the beautiful things that they’re trying to do through their foundation is linking you to all of them. If you go to reMIND.org you’ll see that there’s a plethora of ways you can help our fighting men and women and their families.

Image: Chris and Christina Cuomo
Chris Cuomo at Stand Up for Heroes 2010 with his, wife Cristina Greeven Cuomo

The reason that tonight is special is that Bob Woodruff is incredibly special to me. He’s a mentor to me in the business. I think he’s the best at ABC News or really any outlet has to offer in terms of journalism. But I think that the mixture of having comedy and these fighting men and women, especially when they’ve been through a hard time, there is a nice part of having levity to take the edge off.

And I think it reminds everybody that we have to have a sense of humor to be upbeat about what happens to us in life, no matter how grave it is, but also get some wattage, get some attention to it again so people remember to care and remind is why remind.org uses that word.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the organization tonight and why you’re supporting it?

McHale: Well, obviously this cause is tremendous, and the injured troops need lifelong care. There needs to be great awareness and there needs to be more funding for that, and more money raised for their lifelong care and taking care of their families because they have made such an incredible sacrifice that it’s the least we can do.

Q: Why mix comedy with such a serious subject?

McHale: Why not?