Voice talent, Sharon Feingold has found a way to combine her voice over career with charity through her initiative and association, Stars at Bedtime. In my blog interview with her she talks about how she helped start this endeavor and how voice talent and other actors can get involved.

-Tracy Pattin

TJP: You believe in giving back and started Stars at Bedtime. What is that?

SF: Stars at Bedtime would fall under my “Community Relations department”! It’s my vision of a way for people who use their voices professionally to give back using their talents.

TJP: How did you come up with the concept?

SF: I was always taught the importance of donating your time with the same skills you are using in your profession. I dreamed up the idea of voice actors using their unique and often soothing voices to read bedtime stories to children in hospitals. A bedtime story can offer relief and entertainment for children who may feel scared in an unfamiliar hospital environment. Parents staying with their children can feel comfortable taking a break knowing their child will be happily engaged in storytime.

TJP: How has this impacted your career?

SF: Well, we are just getting started. In fact we just had our first reading night at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, part of New York Presbyterian. I hope it serves as an outlet for me to experience the joy of giving back and will remove me from the extreme self-focus you sort of have to have when you’re pursuing a career as an actor.

TJP: How can voice talent get involved?

SF: My dream is that voice actors from all over the country will approach their local hospitals and become involved in the Stars at Bedtime network. My organization can guide them. We don’t supply volunteers or endorse anyone.

TJP: What are your hopes for the organization?

SF: We hope to be a central place for providing people with resources to better understand how to organize their own efforts and local initiatives and work as hospital volunteers as part of a nationwide Stars at Bedtime network. Once a new hospital has a Stars at Bedtime volunteer, we can include that chapter on our website and share new ideas for how to better develop our respective programs. Please contact me at Sharon@starsatbedtime.org or go to the Stars at Bedtime website. My dream is to see this happening all across the country!