Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks Auctions
Off Solar Powered Radios for Rural Africa

Check out this great site for more information on Tom's Ebay charity event. 100% f the final sale price will support The Freeplay Foundation.

Lisa

Rick Ross Charities

Miami Hip-Hop Event (and new reality show too).

Tomorrow, January 26, Fast food franchise Hip Hop Grub Spot™, Rick Ross Charities, Inc and San Francisco 49er Frank Gore will host a star-studded red carpet grand opening from 1 to 10 p.m. at Hip Hop Grub Spot™, 20356 NW 2^ND Avenue in Miami Gardens. Red Carpet arrivals will take place from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.

This Grand Opening is dedicated to the late Albert Moss "DJ Uncle Al", for his commitment to Miami Hip Hop as a tool to inspire the youth for positive social change.

Hip Hop Grub Spot™ celebrates youth entrepreneurship and global business leadership through initiatives executed by Rick Ross Charities, Inc, San Francisco 49er Frank Gore's Scholarship Foundation, Save the Arts Youth Foundation, and Portrait of Empowerment, Inc. The event will be hosted by teen Hip Hop sensation Lil Briana. Guests include: Rick Ross (Slip N'Slide/Def Jam); Cool N' Dre (Epidemic Records); Brisco (Poe Boy Music Group/Cash Money Records); Flo Rida (Poe Boy Music Group/Atlantic Records); Smitty (Jive Records) Close Range; DJ EFX; Sony Epic R&B sensation, Casely, Hip Hop dancer and teen pop star Montana Tucker; Raekwon and members of the Wu-Tang Clan; Duo Live, Mr. Wise (I Love NY 2); WEDR 99 Jamz Radio personalities, K. Foxx; Supa Cindy; Donald Boroian (Chairman and Founder of Francorp- world's leader in franchising); NFL Super agent, Drew Rosenhaus; San Francisco 49er and Pro Bowl Running Back, Frank Gore and all of his NFL friends including, Chad Johnson (Cincinnati Bengals); Clinton Portis (Washington Redskins); Santanna Moss (Washington Redskins); Rosco Parrish (Buffalo Bills); Andre Johnson, (Houston Texans); Samari Rolle (Baltimore Ravens); Sinorice Moss (New York Giants); Antwan Barnes (Baltimore Ravens); Willis Mcgahee (Baltimore Ravens); Dwayne Bowe (Kansas City Chiefs) along with many other celebrities, entertainment industry professionals and professional athletes.

Through partnerships with Florida A&M NAA Investment Committee, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Johnson and Wales University, PepsiCo and Rainforest Films, Hip Hop Grub Spot's mission is to stop the violence in surrounding communities, educate and improve the quality of life of today's youth by providing a safe and entertaining environment with an emphasis on quality and service while education students in the community about global business leadership, youth entrepreneurship, investment opportunities and venture philanthropy.

Note: This event will also mark day one of production for the reality show: "America's Next Hip Hop Fashionista," created by Hip Hop Grub Spot™ and HCHA Couture, to be aired on cable television networks in the fall of 2008. Potential contestants for this reality show are asked to visit www.youtube.com/hiphopgrubspot , upload their video detailing why they should be "America's Next Hip Hop Fashionista," for consideration to participate in the reality series.

Adrienne Shelly Foundation

Adrienne Shelly

Waitress -- No this isn't a movie review, but if it were I would tell you that I absolutely adored the movie Waitress, starring Keri Russell and Adrienne Shelly, who also wrote the film. I rented it the other day after hearing several people tell me how good it was.

When I rent a DVD, I always look at the extras that come with it. So, while I was looking for the gag reel (my fave extra), I found information on the Adrienne Shelly Foundation.

It was there that I learned about the tragic ending to Shelly's life. on November 1, 2006, she was found hanging by a bedsheet by her husband. At first it appeared to be a suicide. Later, it was determined that she was murdered by her downstairs neighbor.

After her death, her husband Andy Ostroy founded the Adrienne Shelly Foundation because as Andy writes on the webpage, "To continue Adrienne’s dream, I started this foundation with the goal of helping women achieve their own filmmaking dreams. I hope you’ll join me in supporting this important mission with your generous contribution. And if you like what we’re doing, please forward our link to your friends, family and associates who might be interested in supporting us as well."

When I decided to write about celebrity-do-gooders, it wasn't just to report on the Bonos and Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolies of the world. It was to let you know that many faces in Hollywood -- in front of and behind the camera -- are doing what they can to help change the world. Many people, like Andy, were personally affected by a tragedy, illness or circumstance that prompted them to make a change.

Until next time,
Lisa

Tony Randall and Jack Klugman

Tony Randall and
Jack Klugman

I am a huge fan of The Odd Couple (remember the sitcom starring Jack Klugman as messy Oscar and Tony Randall as neat Felix) and as a matter of fact, while I write this blog, I have the DVD playing on the TV next to me and I can watch it all day long. Years ago, I had a brief encounter with Tony Randall. He had visited Philip Morris, where I use to work years ago, regarding a partnership on a project that he was working on. I met him, he was very gracious and I got (and still have) his autograph. I was thrilled when I was searching the Internet one night and found that Jack Klugman had self-published a book called Tony and Me: a story of friendship.

In this book, Jack talks about the love that Tony Randall had for the theater and how hard he worked to create the National Actors Theater in 1991. Randall and Klugman would often give up their own salaries when they did performances of The Odd Couple on tour to donate the proceeds to the Theater, and Randall would donate millions of his own money so that this Theater could exist. Read more about it here. According to the website for the Tony Randall Theatrical Fund, Randall distributed 40,000 free tickets for students to see the productions at his theatre and sent teaching artists into the schools to prepare the children for their experiences. He also spent many hours volunteering himself for organizations. The site explains that, "The kids were always Tony's favorite audiences and The Tony Randall Theatrical Fund is pleased to announce the formation of the Tony's For Kid's Grants for educating public school children in the arts."

I love Broadway musicals and I love the theater and The Odd Couple is one of those shows for me that will never end...I was like a little kid when I found out it was on DVD. I'm glad for one brief moment I got to meet Tony Randall and ask for his autograph. If I knew then the kind of work he did and how much of his own income and time he dedicated to the cause, I would've said, "Thank you for all that you do." Jack Klugman wrote a book that really shows you the type of friendship they both had and the fact they would do anything for each other.
Today, Tony's dedication to the theater lives on with grants and scholarships and more. PLEASE go to this site and read more about it and see if there's anything you can do to help -- Tony Randall Theatrical Fund.

Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp donates $2 million to hospital that saved his daughter's life!

Read all about it at Us Magazine.

Way to go Johnny!

Lisa

Happy Birthday Ellen!

Happy Birthday Ellen!

Ellen DeGeneres turns 50 this month and she only wants one thing for her birthday (well, maybe she wants more things, but she let us in on this one). Ellen has teamed up with Brad Pitt (gee, I wish I could say that one day! LOL) to help his worthy charity, Make It Right.
Come on people, let's get New Orleans back to where it should be! Brad Pitt and residents of the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans launched a national fundraising campaign to help the city recover from the lasting devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, starting with the Lower 9th Ward.
Pitt was in the Lower 9th Ward on the site of his Make It Right project's first initiative ­ 150 affordable and sustainable homes in an area leveled by Katrina that are being built in partnership with Steve Bing.
Go to their website www.makeitrightnola.org and send a contribution that will help us rebuild homes for these families -- and rebuild their lives.
In addition to high-quality, sustainable design, the project incorporates the spirit and culture of the Lower 9th Ward and encourages it to flourish.
Pitt also unveiled innovative features of www.makeitrightnola.org. Users are able to walk through houses and select which items in the house they will support with their contributions. The site also allows users to provide parts of a house on behalf of their friends and families.
Following the announcements, Pitt hosted a party for Lower 9th residents.
The party included appearances by Jerry Lee Lewis, Ivan Neville, and Fats Domino.
Earlier last year, Pitt and Bing announced at the Clinton Global Initiative that they each would match $5 million in contributions to the houses, for a total of $10 million in matching funds, and challenged others to join them in rebuilding New Orleans.

Pitt became a part-time resident of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. After seeing the devastation first hand and meeting with the hardest-hit residents, he began the Make It Right project to catalyze the rebuilding of New Orleans starting with the Lower 9th Ward.
The 150-home community will address the dire need for single-family housing in the Lower 9th Ward and further spark rebuilding efforts in one of the richest cultural communities in America, an area that saw houses not just flooded by water, but swept off their foundations.
Make It Right's mission is built upon catalyzing redevelopment of the Lower 9th Ward by building a neighborhood of safe and healthy homes that incorporates modern, high-quality design and construction while preserving the spirit of the community's culture.
Make It right is committed to building 150 houses in the Lower 9th Ward; ensuring a green, affordable, sustainable, and replicable community to serve as a model for further rebuilding; including the Lower 9th Ward community as an integral part of the process; and a finance plan that ensures that residents who wish to return to the Lower 9th Ward can do so without further
financial hardship.
Core Make It Right team members include Graft, an innovative architecture firm that Pitt has collaborated with on projects around the world; William McDonough + Partners, which is developing the environmental criteria guiding the project; Cherokee Gives Back Foundation , the nonprofit arm of Cherokee, a firm that specializes in remediation and sustainable redevelopment of environmentally impaired properties; and Trevor Neilson and Nina Killeen, advisors to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.
So, if you're a fan of Brad Pitt, want to give Ellen something for her birthday, or you know in your heart that New Orleans still needs our help and you want to give, please visit the site and make a donation. Ellen said on her show, if you can afford fifty cents, fifty dollars or fifty-thousand dollars, it all helps!
Happy Birthday Ellen!

Lisa

Kassie DePaiva and her One Life to Live

Kassie DePaiva and her

One Life to Live

I had a wonderful opportunity the other day to interview Kassie DePaiva, who plays Blair Daimler on ABC's One Life to Live, for a great website run by author Debbie Feit, called http://www.ourspecialkids.com/. Kassie is such a nice person, easy to interview and really has compassion and dedication for the work that she does for The League for the Hard of Hearing. My article with her will include her life with her son, J.Q. who was born deaf, what she went through in those early years and what her life is like today. She's really an inspiration!

Stay tuned!

Lisa

The Green Bay Packers Give Back

The Green Bay Packers Give Back

In keeping with the spirit of football in this playoff season, I wanted to know who your favorite team was and what they do to give back?

Can you guess who my favorite team is? Okay, I know, I know...Lisa, you mention it whenever you can! True, true...but after poking around their website, I was pleased to hear how much the Green Bay Packers team gives back. I'm sure most teams do something for charity, so let me hear it. Who is your favorite sports team and what do they do? Go poke around their website and find out! Is there a way you can get involved?
The Packers Foundation states that:

Last year, in its annual distribution of funds, the foundation awarded $144,250 to 61 civic and charitable groups throughout the state of Wisconsin, Gary Rotherham, chairman of the Foundation committee, announced Feb. 27, 2007. With these disbursements, the Foundation has distributed $1,618,376 for charitable purposes since it was established in 1986 by Judge Robert J. Parins, then president of the Packers Corporation, "as a vehicle to assure continued contributions to charity." The financial breakdown of the Foundation's contributions discloses that 28 grants -- aggregating $79,750 -- were awarded to Brown County organizations. Additional grants, totaling $64,500, were made to 33 other groups around the state. Under the Packers Scholarship Program, established in 2002, an additional $15,000 is being awarded -- $7,500 to Scholarships, Inc., for distribution to students in four-year colleges -- and $7,500 to Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC) for distribution to students in two-year associate degree or apprenticeship trades programs. The scholarship funds come from National Football League Properties which, at the Packers' request, returns to the Foundation royalty fees paid for using the Packers logo on Wisconsin automobile license plates. In the past year, the Packers Foundation also has distributed an additional $52,375 on behalf of National Football League Charities -- $21,500 in Community Quarterback awards to civic leaders for contributions to the community, $5,600 in Junior Community Quarterback awards, $12,375 in the NFL's Coach of the Week program, which honors successful Wisconsin high school coaches on a weekly basis throughout the season, $2,900 for the Junior Volunteer Stars grant, $5,000 in NFL Join the Team initiative, and $5,000 in the league's Hometown Huddle program.

This doesn't even begin to cover it -- they hold dinners for sick kids, lunch with Santa, work with the Salvation Army, encourage and reward giving of the community members and more. I know most teams probably do this stuff, but this is MY team! And I'm so proud of them!
In addition, the site also says that many Packers veterans have taken their acts of giving to a higher level by creating their own foundations, which have an impact on hundreds of lives each year in Wisconsin and the players' home states.

Donald Driver created the "Donald Driver Foundation" -- to help change the homeless families' issues and education needs each day with STRONG HANDS that build and strengthen instead of destroy and weaken, with STRONG MINDS that invent new ideas to achieve these goals, and with LOVING HEARTS that overflow with love and compassion.

Brett Favre has the "Brett Favre Fourward Foundation", which donates to several charities in Mississippi and in Wisconsin, donating in excess of $1.2 million to various charities in the two states. Check out www.officialbrettfavre.com.
And let's not forget about the work that his wife, Deanna, is doing for breast cancer research. Check her site out at http://www.deannafavre4hope.com/

Al Harris -- cornerback -- founded the Al Harris Foundation, which benefits inner city kids in Al's hometown of Pompano Beach, Florida.

In 2005, tackle Mark Tauscher established the 'Trifecta (Tauscher's Reading Initiative For Every Child To Achieve) Foundation,' its mission to enhance literacy and education in the state of Wisconsin.


Gooooooo Packers!
Lisa

Are you ready for some football?? I am!

Are you ready for some football?? I am!

I'm not really a winter person, but my favorite part of this season has to be football (Go Packers!). And if you know football, you know John Madden. If you don't know football, but you have young children who play video games, you still might have heard of John Madden because your kids play his Madden '08 video game. My son does!

John Madden isn't all about football though. He's about giving back and raising money. He's teamed with Outback Steakhouse to set $1 million as the fundraising goal for a new charity campaign centered on the Outback Steakhouse Madden Cruiser, which carries the NBC football analyst to NFL games throughout the season.

The campaign, dubbed Outback Steakhouse Madden Miles, will directly benefit two children's charities - the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). Outback Steakhouse will kick-off the campaign's "Drive to a Million" by guaranteeing $200,000 to the initiative, based upon a $10 donation for each of the estimated 20,000 miles the famed vehicle will travel from one NFL stadium to the next this season.

In addition, Outback Steakhouse will work with the two charities to advertise the campaign, stage fund-raising events in local cities and host a website (http://www.blogger.com/www.outback.com/maddenmiles) to make it easy for NFL fans to participate.

"As I spend hours on the Outback Steakhouse Madden Cruiser this season it will give me great joy to know that every mile we travel will mean more money for the kids," said Madden. "I am also excited about the opportunity to raise awareness as we all band together and join in the fight against these debilitating diseases."

NFL fans in Chicago, Denver and Dallas attended Outback Steakhouse Madden Miles Parties when their local teams were featured on NBC's Football Night in America on October 7, October 21 and November 4 respectively.>

The Outback Steakhouse Madden Cruiser has become a familiar and welcome site along the nation's highways and country roads since Madden stopped traveling by airplane in 1979. The 45-foot-long luxury cruiser features high speed internet access, satellite radio, three flat-screen plasma televisions, a full granite kitchen, two bathrooms, a steam shower, guest bunks, and in Madden's sleeping quarters at the back of the cruiser, a queen bed. Madden spends much of his time on the bus reviewing game tapes, reading and researching on the internet. The Cruiser holds 200 gallons of diesel fuel and can travel coast to coast in 50 hours with two drivers.

About the Charities

The Muscular Dystrophy Association is a voluntary health agency -- a dedicated partnership between scientists and concerned citizens aimed at conquering neuromuscular diseases that affect more than a million Americans. The Association's programs are funded almost entirely by individual private contributors. For more information, go to www.mda.org

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International is the leading charitable funder and advocate of type 1 (juvenile) diabetes research worldwide.The mission of JDRF is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. For more information on JDRF please visit www.jdrf.org.

Get involved!

Lisa