Tyler Perry, the star, writer and producer of films such as "Madea Goes to Jail" and the television show "House of Payne," could be adding philanthropist to his growing list of credits.

According to his publicist, Perry is sponsoring a Disney World trip for 65 Pennsylvania children at a largely minority day-care center after a swim club canceled pool privileges for the children.

"He wanted to do something nice for them and let them know that for every negative experience, there are people out there who want them to succeed regardless of the color of their skin," said Keleigh Thomas, Perry's publicist. She added the entertainer would be footing the bill for all transportation, hotel, admissions and food costs at the Florida theme park.

When Perry heard about the situation with the children in the highly publicized aftermath of the pool cancellation, he immediately wanted to help them, Thomas told CNN, adding that a trip to Disney World is definitely "better than the pool."

"I am ecstatic for the children," Alethea Wright, director of the Creative Steps day-care center, told CNN. Perry's team extended the offer to her on Friday, she said. The Disney World stay will be from August 1 to 3, according to Perry's Web site.


The pool controversy started after the Valley Swim Club in suburban Philadelphia revoked the swimming privileges for children from the Creative Steps center after one visit on June 29. Some black and Hispanic children said white club members made racist comments to them during that visit, asking why "black children were there" and raising concerns that "they might steal from us."

The day-care center had originally contracted to use the pool during the summer, but the club canceled the agreement and returned the day-care center's $1,950 check without explanation.

The club canceled contracts with two other day-care centers because of safety and crowding, swim club director John Duesler said. Those facilities have not protested the club's actions.

The issue was exacerbated when Duesler told two Philadelphia television stations the children had changed "the complexion" and "atmosphere" of the club. The comment brought protesters outside the facility.

Duesler later said that safety and crowding prompted the cancellation.

As the controversy grew and reached national news shows, the swim club asked the Creative Steps day care to return. It refused and said it would pursue a lawsuit.

In a statement posted Monday on his Web site, Perry summed up his feelings about the pool situation: "This made me so angry," he wrote.

"This is awful, and for anyone that has grown up in the inner-city, you know that one small act of kindness can change your life," he wrote, adding that with the trip to Disney World, "I want them to know that for every act of evil that a few people will throw at you, there are millions more who will do something kind for them. This is all about the kids."



source + video

I hate his movies, but this is so fucking incredible I can't hate him anymore.

posted by GossipGander \\ tags: charity

 Visiting 92.3 NOW-FM in New York City:







 

Source: http://www.jordinsparks.cc/photos/thumbnails.php?album=155         




Visiting patients at Children's Hospital in Boston, MA:







Source:   http://www.jordinsparks.cc/photos/thumbnails.php?album=156      

posted by GossipGander \\ tags: charity

posted by GossipGander \\ tags: charity

GO TO THE SOURCE TO WATCH HIS FINAL VIDEO!

"Our trip took us from Mumbai to a city called Bhubaneswar where old traditions and stigmas run deep. It was here that Travis met his match in Mandakini Behera, a 4-foot-9 HIV-positive 24-year-old who has been working at the HIV/AIDS clinic in Utkal since being diagnosed there...



"The clinic sees about 10 to 20 patients a week and has a monthly budget of $2000 to $3000 most of which is funded by the Global Fund for HIV and AIDS. Downstairs two rooms with about 10 metal beds, made up with crisp clean white sheets, are filled with patients in all
stages of the disease.

"They are trying to give these people their dignity which is so important,” said Travis, ducking under the hospital’s low doorways. "They are helping them through a very scary time. I’ve seen it, and I am so glad that they are able to access treatment out here in Bhubaneswar, and that the Staying Alive Foundation is playing a role.”

For the entire blog entry, more photos and full-length video, go to the SOURCE.

posted by GossipGander \\ tags: charity

"Today I met my brother, two worlds apart.
One fire one heart.
Shantytowns, pastels and browns.
Smiling children, abandoned buildings.
We are not lost..."
- Travis McCoy (Gym Class Heroes)



Watch his touching video blog at the SOURCE (it seriously pulls at your heart strings).



"It had been an emotional day for the lead singer of the alternative hip-hop band Gym Class Heroes usually known for his tongue-in-cheek lyrics, jokester antics and tattooed limbs. For a kid from upstate New York who lives his life online and often wears his heart on his sleeve, blogging about his break up with Katy Perry or his recent trip to drug rehab, everything was pulled close to his chest.

The lyrics were dedicated to his new brother, South African documentary filmmaker Bulelani Mvotho. McCoy is the new ambassador for MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation, which funds 55 HIV/AIDS projects around the globe. McCoy is trying to revive a dialog about HIV/AIDS that he feels has long gone silent among his age group. Kids 15 to 24 now account for 45 percent of HIV infections worldwide.

Bulelani’s Snapshot Mobile Community Cinema is one MTV’s grantees whose project is helping to spread awareness and preach responsibility in the areas most vulnerable to the disease. Almost a third of the Cape Flat’s two million residents are HIV positive, one of the largest concentrated populations in the world.

Earlier that day at the Lookout Point Community Center in Khayelitsha a crowd of local teens had gathered to watch Bulelani’s newest film and meet their new "Ambassador". McCoy sat cross-legged front and center with the children watching them react to tough topics like HIV, stigma, peer pressure, condoms and young boys spreading the disease through multiple partners.

"They were so focused and so knowledgeable," said McCoy. "I feel like American kids wouldn’t be mature enough to sit through a film like that.” There are 280,000 children in South Africa under the age of 15 living with HIV, "which means this disease is a reality to every child in that room and their knowledge is their power," said Bulelani."

The rest of the article and photos can be found here.

posted by GossipGander \\ tags: charity

"I came to Manila preparing to compare my experience here to South Africa, as I compared my experience in Cape Town to the US. But what I saw today cannot be compared; it can’t even be put into words. I thought I grew up poor but I didn’t know what poor was until today."
-- Travis McCoy, Manila, Philippines


-----------
I've been following his journey out of pure curiosity. Originally, I wasn't a Travis McCoy or Gym Class Heroes fan but what he is doing is truly touching and inspiring. I'm actually glad that he is using his celebrity status to reach a younger, MTV audience.
-----------

Here is the video of Travis arriving in the Philippines


CHECK OUT THE VIDEO OF TRAVIS TEACHING CHILDREN HOW TO PUT A CONDOM AT THE SOURCE

Just yards from the local police station and a half a mile from Manila’s Super Mall, dozens of Filipino families live in inhumane conditions under the Kaybuboy Bridge. Even in the midday sun the undercarriage remains pitch black as the makeshift shantytown erected by locals now blocks out all natural light.

With only 4 feet of headspace, the 6-foot-5 alternative hip hop artist wormed his way through the maze of subterranean shacks, an occasional door opening to shed some light on the living conditions of Manila’s poorest of the poor. Families of five or six sleeping side by side on floor mats, the air hot and think and damp. Women washing clothes in water siphoned off from an illegal water source, their only alternative to the sewage running underneath their feet....

posted by GossipGander \\ tags: charity

Pixar grants girl's dying wish to see 'Up'

HUNTINGTON BEACH – Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old with a rare form of cancer, was staying alive for one thing – a movie.

From the minute Colby saw the previews to the Disney-Pixar movie Up, she was desperate to see it. Colby had been diagnosed with vascular cancer about three years ago, said her mother, Lisa Curtin, and at the beginning of this month it became apparent that she would die soon and was too ill to be moved to a theater to see the film.

After a family friend made frantic calls to Pixar to help grant Colby her dying wish, Pixar came to the rescue.

The company flew an employee with a DVD of Up, which is only in theaters, to the Curtins’ Huntington Beach home on June 10 for a private viewing of the movie.

The animated movie begins with scenes showing the evolution of a relationship between a husband and wife. After losing his wife in old age, the now grumpy man deals with his loss by attaching thousands of balloons to his house, flying into the sky, and going on an adventure with a little boy.

Colby died about seven hours after seeing the film.



With her daughter’s vigil planned for Friday, Lisa Curtin reflected about how grateful she is that Pixar – and "Up" – were a part of her only child’s last day.

“When I watched it, I had really no idea about the content of the theme of the movie,” said Curtin, 46. “I just know that word ‘Up’ and all of the balloons and I swear to you, for me it meant that (Colby) was going to go up. Up to heaven.”

Pixar officials declined to comment on the story or name the employees involved.

THE PREVIEWS

Colby was diagnosed with vascular cancer on Dec. 23, 2005 after doctors found a tumor in her liver. At the time of her death, her stomach was about 94 inches around, swollen with fluids the cancer wouldn’t let her body properly digest. The rest of her body probably weighed about 45 pounds, family friend Carole Lynch said.

Colby had gone to Newport Elementary School and was known for making others laugh, family friend Terrell Orum said. Colby loved to dance, sing, swim and seemed to have a more mature understanding of the world than other children her age, Orum said.

On April 28, Colby went to see the Dream Works 3-D movie "Monsters Vs. Aliens" but was impressed by the previews to "Up."

“It was from then on, she said, ‘I have to see that movie. It is so cool,’” Lynch said.

Colby was a movie fan, Lisa Curtin said, and she latched onto Pixar’s movies because she loved animals.

Two days later Colby’s health began to worsen. On June 4 her mother asked a hospice company to bring a wheelchair for Colby so she could visit a theater to see "Up." However, the weekend went by and the wheelchair was not delivered, Lisa Curtin said.

By June 9, Colby could no longer be transported to a theater and her family feared she would die without having seen the movie.

At that point, Orum, who desperately wanted Colby to get her last wish, began to cold-call Pixar and Disney to see if someone could help.

Pixar has an automated telephone answering system, Orum said, and unless she had a name of a specific person she wanted to speak to, she could not get through. Orum guessed a name and the computer system transferred her to someone who could help, she said.

Pixar officials listened to Colby’s story and agreed to send someone to Colby’s house the next day with a DVD of "Up," Orum recalled.

She immediately called Lisa Curtin, who told Colby.

“Do you think you can hang on?” Colby’s mother said.

“I’m ready (to die), but I’m going to wait for the movie,” the girl replied.

THE MOVIE

At about 12:30 p.m. the Pixar employee came to the Curtins’ home with the DVD.

He had a bag of stuffed animals of characters in the movie and a movie poster. He shared some quirky background details of the movie and the group settled in to watch Up.

Colby couldn't see the screen because the pain kept her eyes closed so her mother gave her a play-by-play of the film.

At the end of the film, the mother asked if her daughter enjoyed the movie and Colby nodded yes, Lisa Curtin said.

The employee left after the movie, taking the DVD with him, Lynch said.

“He couldn’t have been nicer,” said Lynch who watched the movie with the family. “His eyes were just welled up.”

After the movie, Colby’s dad, Michael Curtin, who is divorced from Lisa Curtin, came to visit.

Colby died with her mom and dad nearby at 9:20 p.m.

Among the Up memorabilia the employee gave Colby was an “adventure book” – a scrap book the main character’s wife used to chronicle her journeys.

“I’ll have to fill those adventures in for her,” Lisa Curtin said.


http://www.ocregister.com/articles/pixar-up-movie-2468059-home-show.htm

RIP :(
Good job Pixar

posted by GossipGander \\ tags: charity

Angelina and Brad Give $1 Million to Aid Refugees



They're between film shoots, but Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have kept busy.

First, it was the creation of the Jane Pitt Pediatric Cancer Center, named after Brad's mother, in his hometown of Springfield, Mo. And Wednesday, in support of Jolie's eight-year relationship with the UN Refugee Agency, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation gave $1 million to help displaced people in Pakistan, a country she has visited three times.

The head of the agency, António Guterres, thanked the foundation for its assistance, calling Pakistan's plight "the most challenging humanitarian crisis of the past decade," as more than 2 million people are currently displaced in the country.

Jolie will talk about her work in aiding refugees Thursday when she and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton celebrate World Refugee Day in Washington D.C.

Having just finished a four-month shoot for the thriller Salt, Jolie will be a stay-at-home mom as her family moves to Los Angeles while Pitt films Moneyball.

source

Sounds like good work they're doing to me.  Btw, is there any specific article or interview where Angelina says she donates 1/3 of her income to charity?  I've heard that figure mentioned several times, but I can't find the original source.

edited to add (thanks cluelessraf!):

Here's a website with more information on World Refugee Day.  Look at it if you get the chance!: http://www.refugeesinternational.org/

posted by GossipGander \\ tags: charity

This Father's Day Weekend (June 20-21), Wendy's is helping consumers to treat Dad and help foster children at the same time. Wendy's third annual Father's Day Frosty Weekend provides an easy and tasty way to support the cause of foster care adoption and help the more than 129,000 children in the U.S. who are waiting for the love of forever families.

During Father's Day Weekend, Wendy's will donate 50¢ from every Frosty product sold to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA), a non-profit public charity dedicated to dramatically increasing the number of foster children adoptions in North America. Also customers can stop by Wendy's and donate by purchasing a Frosty pin-up for $1 each.

This year, Wendy's is starting a new tradition for Father's Day:

Design a Frosty eCard for Dad: Kids can go to FrostyCard.com to create a free custom Father's Day eCard and Wendy's will donate an additional 25¢ to the DTFA for every Frosty Card sent. Kids choose from a variety of scenes and objects, from sandcastles on the beach to baseball in the backyard. They can also give Dad a taste of Hollywood by selecting a pre-designed card created by a celebrity, such as actress Eva Longoria-Parker or former NBA star Alonzo Mourning, who along with other celebrities, designed cards to show their support of this cause.

"The Wendy's system is very proud to be involved with this special event that supports the cause that our founder, Dave Thomas, was most passionate about - finding a permanent and loving home for every child in the foster care system," said Wendy's President David Karam, who serves on the board of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

"This is our third year for Father's Day Frosty Weekend and we've set our fundraising goal at $1.7 million! We hope families will find this an enjoyable way to celebrate Father's Day while making a difference in the lives of foster children."

After raising more than $1 million in 2007 and over $1.5 million in 2008 during Father's Day Frosty Weekend, Wendy's remains committed to supporting the cause of foster care adoption in the U.S.

Join Wendy's in supporting adoption - stop by Wendy's during Father's Day Frosty Weekend, June 20-21, for a special treat or go to FrostyCard.com to design a free eCard for Dad!

here


RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU DIP YOUR FRENCH FRIES INTO YOUR FROSTY !

posted by GossipGander \\ tags: charity, sports athletes

posted by GossipGander \\ tags: charity