Design Visionary and Innovator Michael Beneville Joins First Responders Children’s Foundation Board of Directors


NEW YORK, Nov. 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Responder’s Children’s Foundation (FRCF) is pleased to announce that design visionary and innovator Michael Beneville has joined its board of directors.

Mr. Beneville is the Founder and CEO of Beneville Studios, an art and creative agency that designs objects, environments, conceptual roadmaps, and digital realms that inspire, educate, entertain, and enrich our experience of contemporary life. Beneville Studios has served as creative consultants for iHeartMedia, including the award-winning New York City headquarters, as well as the completely reimagined visitor experience for the Empire State Building Observatory. Mr. Beneville is also the Chief Creative Officer and visionary leader behind the enormously popular AREA15, a 250,000-square-foot immersive art, entertainment, retail complex in Las Vegas, with plans to expand globally. In addition, he serves as Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Vatom Inc., a vertically-integrated Web3 company powered by Vatom’s smart NFTs and universal wallet that is persistent across both the physical and digital worlds. Whatever the medium and scale, Mr. Beneville makes no distinction between his role as artist, designer, and innovator – the only distinction is the story to be told.

“Michael Beneville brings profound talents to the FRCF board, and we are extraordinarily fortunate to have him on our team,” said FRCF President and CEO Jillian Crane. “Michael is one of the most sought after design and storytelling geniuses in America today, and FRCF and the hundreds of thousands of children and families it serves will benefit enormously from his cutting-edge vision and passion for innovation. Michael is entirely self-made, and his desire to give back to the families of those who serve us everyday speaks volumes about his character.”

First Responders Children’s Foundation, established in the wake of the 9/11 attacks that took the lives of so many first responders, provides scholarships and other assistance to the children and families of first responders injured or killed in the line of duty all across America. It also provides more than a quarter million toys each holiday season to first responder agencies who distribute to them to families most in need.

"Our first responders and their families are with us in our most desperate times and hours of need,” Mr. Beneville said. “The very least that we can do is to be there for them in their most trying times. Joining the board of directors of First Responders Children's Foundation is my humble way of saying thank you to these heroes for the many times I have counted on them throughout my life. I’m honored to be a part of this mission."

About First Responders Children’s Foundation (FRCF)

First Responders Children’s Foundation is a national foundation that provides programs and resources that address the specific needs of children of first responders. The Foundation focuses on critical areas, including scholarships, financial assistance grants; bereavement assistance, mental health counseling for children; and Community Engagement. FRCF was founded over 21 years ago in response to 9/11 when 800 children lost a first responder parent. FRCF also supports first responder families enduring significant financial hardship due to tragic circumstances, including injury in the line of duty.

Additional information about FRCF can be found at www.1stRCF.org and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @1strcf.

About Beneville Studios

Beneville Studios is an Idea Manifestation Machine.

Beneville Studios is an art and creative agency that designs objects, environments, conceptual roadmaps, digital realms that inspire, educate, entertain, and enrich our experience of contemporary life. We even shape buildings and the businesses within them. Working at all scales, in physical and virtual spaces, our work is united by the power of its storytelling and its ability to connect our clients and users to a new awareness of themselves and the larger world.

Working closely with corporate leadership, we provide creative direction for companies of all kinds, assemble and direct larger design teams, and leverage strategic relationships to forge new opportunities. Our process from discovery to design is agnostic, open-ended and never relies on predetermined ideas, springing instead from the alchemy of our collective and collaborative imagination.

Among our dozens of projects, we have reinterpreted iconic buildings, created brand-extending corporate offices, developed gateways for others to explore the digital frontier, and even launched entirely new real estate entities that are redefining the 21st century visitor experience.

Founded by Michael Beneville, Camille Purdy, and Kimberly Beneville, we are a creative workshop of designers, makers, artisans, and futurists. Our work combines exquisite craft with cutting-edge innovation, to create one-of-kind objects, environments, and experiences that embody not only our client’s missions, but redefine our collective future.

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