The American Red Cross will honor several people for extraordinary courage at its 8th Annual Real Heroes Breakfast on Thursday, May 11 at 7:30 a.m. at DoubleTree by Hilton in Binghamton. 

The Real Heroes Breakfast celebrates the Red Cross mission of alleviating human suffering by recognizing people from throughout the region who have performed heroic acts during times of crisis. The heroes include first responders as well as ordinary citizens who performed life-saving acts. 

The guest speaker is Arthur Bloom. Bloom is a musician, social entrepreneur, and founder and director of MusiCorps, a conservatory-level music rehab program that helps injured veterans play music and recover their lives. Praised by the Wall Street Journal as “revolutionary,” Mus Corps is pioneering in the field of adaptive music, and has helped countless wounded warriors learn or relearn how to play an instrument as a core part of their rehabilitation. 

Bloom is a graduate of Juilliard and Yale, leads the MusiCorps Wounded Warrior Band, and has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Roger Waters, and Sheryl Crow, at the Kennedy Center, the Grand Ole Opry, and Madison Square Garden, and on The Colbert Report, NCIS, and PBS. In 2014 CNN chose Bloom as a Top 10 CNN Hero, in 2015 Fox News chose Bloom as a power player of the week, and in 2016, MusiCorps received a President George H.W. Bush Daily Point Of Light Award. 

Proceeds from the Real Heroes Breakfast benefit the Red Cross, which provides relief to victims of disasters and helps people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies. The Southern Tier Chapter serves Broome, Chenango, Tioga and Tompkins counties.