and convening national conferences on youth sports issues. Live Aid In the Spring of 1985, Mitchell was contacted by Bob Geldof, an Irish rock musician, that had been working on issues of drought and famine in Africa. Geldof asked Mitchell to produce a worldwide televised music show to raise funds to help alleviate the catastrophic consequences of the worst African famine in a century. Mitchell became the Executive Producer of the worldwide Live Aid broadcast (under a newly formed venture Worldwide Sports and Entertainment) and President of the Live Aid Foundation in America. The July 13, 1985 broadcast was the world's first large globally interactive show seen by 1.5 billion viewers in 150 countries. Whereas the 1984 Olympics utilized three satellites to beam from one location around the world, Live Aid utilized thirteen satellites sending and receiving concerts from seven locations from around the world and producing one international feed back to the 150 nations. Despite 1985 being at the height of the Cold War, Mitchell established a global broadcast with a live concert from the Soviet Union featuring Autograph, and a delayed Live Aid showing in China. President Ronald Reagan's Administration supported the Live Aid Foundation by providing wheat from America's reserves and awarded Mitchell a Presidential Citation for the Live Aid Foundation's contributions to humanity. NFIE Mitchell continued his contributions to social and education programs by accepting an appointment to the Board of the National Education Association's Foundation for the Improvement of Education (NFIE), serving on the board from 1987 – 1997. Since its beginning in 1969, the Foundation has served as a laboratory of learning, offering funding and other resources to public school educators, their schools, and districts to solve complex teaching and learning challenges. Fund for Democracy and Development During the dissolution of the Soviet Union starting in 1990, Russia and Ukraine experienced a severe shortage of medical and food supplies. Working throughout both countries witnessing first-hand the growing crisis, Mitchell and his close friend, Yankel Ginzburg, an American artist and humanitarian, who had family in Tver, Russia, responded to requests by Russia's leadership for assistance, co-founding the "Fund for Democracy and Development" to provide aid to alleviate the crisis. Mitchell served as the founding board chairman in 1991 and L. Ronald Scheman (co-founder of the Pan American Development Foundation, where his work included providing financial assistance to low-income rural communities), served as the first President.