Paul Newman founded the hole in the wall Gang in Connecticut in 1988 to serve 800 seriously ill children. The camp has been both widely acclaimed and oversubscribed, prompting Newman and others to launch the new programme in Europe. Incorporated as a limited company in 1992, the non-profit Barretstown Gang Camp replicates The Hole In The Wall Gang experience for European children. It was through Barretstown that Meryl Streep first supported the cause while filming “Dancing at Lughnasa” in Ireland. In November 2001, she was part of an all-star cast for a one-night-only performance of A. E. Hotchner “The World of Nick Adams” at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, alongside Matt Damon in the title role, Gwyneth Paltrow, Morgan Freeman, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Kline, Joanne Woodward, Brian Dennehy, Danny Aiello, Philip Seymour Hoffman and James Naughton. Some of the actors arrived in New York just a few hours before the show, so the director, Frank Corsaro, had little time for rehearsal, and the performers read their lines from the scripts. The biggest laugh was for a bit of dialogue between Ms. Streep and Ms. Roberts, who, playing drunken prostitutes in a railroad station from the story “The Light of the World,” were both apparently confronting their lines for the first time. “How can you say that?” Ms. Streep challenged Ms. Roberts at one point. Prepared to respond, Ms. Roberts looked down at the script. “Um,” she said, and then, with a comic flourish, turned the page.

On the day before the Emmy Awards in September 2004, Streep led an all-star cast in another benefit performance, this time at the Hole in the Wall Camp 15th annual Camp Fundraiser Gala in Ashford, Connecticut, where “My Fair Laddie”, A.E. Hotchner announced $1 million was raised for the camps program. Meryl Streep played Professor Higgins and singing, ‘Why Can’t a Man Be More Like a Woman?”. The other cast members were Christine Baranski as Countess Pickering, Bruce Willis as the male Eliza Doolittle and Paul Newman played Eliza’s father, Alfred Doolittle, dressed in a turn-of-the century driver’s outfit.

In October 2010, The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp was honored to join forces with the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps in hosting “A Celebration of Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Camps” that brought together an outstanding line-up of Grammy-winning musicians, including Hilary Hahn, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, John Mellencamp, Bette Midler, Keb’ Mo’ and Stevie Wonder with appearances by comedian Bill Cosby and actresses Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger. The performance took place at New York City’s Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center before an audience of more than 2,200. Joining Streep onstage were kids from all over the world who have attended Hole in the Wall Gang camps, “which extend across America to the world – to Africa, to Asia, to lend to support to kids and families in over 50 countries,” said Streep. “Wow!!”