LOS ANGELES - Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s love for children is by no means limited to their own: The couple has donated $1 million to help kids affected by the war in Iraq, the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict announced Wednesday.
The organization will distribute the donation, made through the couple’s Jolie-Pitt Foundation, to four organizations working on behalf of children who have lost parents, homes and schools in Iraq. Children in the U.S. who have lost parents in the conflict will also benefit.
“These educational support programs for children of conflict are the best way to help them heal,” said Jolie in a written statement from Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, which she co-chairs.
“We hope to encourage others to give to these great organizations,” Pitt added in the statement.
The money will be divided between the Armed Services YMCA Operation Hero Program, which provides military children with counseling and educational support; Women for Women International, which will provide books, school supplies and other basic necessities to Iraqi women and children; the International Rescue Committee, which will repair three schools and offer classes for more than 2,500 students; and NineMillion.org, which will give school uniforms and learning materials to more than 2,000 displaced Iraqi kids.
Last year, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation gave more than $300,000 to support the International Rescue Committee’s relief program for Darfur refugees.
I like Brad’s comment about encouraging others to give. Just imagine how effective they’d be if Brad and Angie personally knocked on your door. I mean, could you imagine saying no to either one of them?
For more information on the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, click HERE.
For more information on Women for Women International, click HERE.
For more information on the International Rescue Committee click HERE.
For more information on Nine Million.org, click HERE.
A Gatorade toast was in order at WEEI yesterday after Doc Rivers’ soaked shirt raised $55,000 for charity at auction.
The shirt worn by the Celts coach as Championship MVP Paul Pierce doused him in a celebratory Gatorade shower had been on the auction block since Thursday. Rivers signed the shirt for the sports radio station, which put the garment and accompanying Gatorade bucket up for bids.
“We were obviously very hopeful,” said Jason Wolfe, WEEI’s vice president of AM programming, who was amazed by the high bid and praised “the generosity of Celtics fans.”
Proceeds benefit the Shamrock Foundation, which helps children throughout the Commonwealth.
An anonymous Celtics fan topped the auction with a $35,000 bid after a $20,000 offer from Gatorade sparked a bidding war, Wolfe said. Gatorade, which intended to give the shirt back to the Celtics until allowing itself to be outbid, and an anonymous donor each pitched in another $10,000 for the non-profit.
NEW YORK - “Nightline” will focus on the humanitarian crisis in the Congo with the help of an unusual correspondent — Ben Affleck.
The 35-year-old actor took a “Nightline” crew on his recent fact-finding mission to Africa with the goal of spreading the word on a story that gets relatively little notice in the United States. His essay airs 11:35 p.m. Thursday on ABC.
He’s been to the Congo three times in the past year. He said his motive was to learn about the war and hunger that have killed thousands of people per month in the past decade in hopes that the outside world would be moved to help, and his celebrity opened some doors.
“It’s fairly clear that in the modern age that there is a currency to celebrity, or celebrity is a currency, really,” Affleck told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I’ve discovered that you can spend it in a lot of ways, or you can squander it. You can be taxed, as well. I really started thinking long and hard about how to use that currency as long as I had it.”
His representatives approached “Nightline” with the idea of reporting on his journey. Affleck said he was impressed by “Nightline” stories in 2005 where “Hotel Rwanda” actor Don Cheadle visited that country.
“Nightline” executive producer James Goldston admitted to skepticism. ABC News took heat a decade ago for letting Leonardo DiCaprio interview President Clinton, and the idea of a concerned celebrity taking on a world problem has become a news staple.
“I was quite persuaded by how candid he was about the cliche of it, or the potential cliche,” Goldston said.
Affleck deals with that issue in the opening of his essay: “I want to try to bring people along to learn and if they might not tune into this unless there was some celebrity involved in it, either because they’re interested in the celebrity or because they want to see the celebrity kind of make a fool of himself, then so be it,” he says.
He doesn’t act as a reporter, Goldston said. The idea was to present the story as a personal journey, following Affleck as he met with survivors of the conflict, relief officials and even some warlords.
“Nightline” hasn’t done its own story on the Congo since 2002, although Cynthia McFadden recently took a trip to Africa to report on several issues there.
Affleck said one “Nightline” piece isn’t likely to change much, but the goal is to spread the word and hope that people in the United States can identify with some people who are suffering.
Perhaps then they could be moved to help, he said. Affleck hasn’t identified himself with any particular relief organization that is helping the Congo.
He believes people will respond to this approach.
“I don’t think people respond particularly well to being hectored, or being made to feel guilty, or being made to feel as though they’re kind of callow or insensitive for the life they’ve been leading up until then,” he said.
And why shouldn’t Ben Affleck be able to take a trip to the Congo with cameras? It is actually kind of refreshing to have a celebrity invite a camera to go somewhere interesting with a goal of opening people’s minds to someone else’s suffering. Unlike, say, the “personal” suffering certain celebrities choose to display such as their farm being overrun by 10 tens pigs, or the “suffering” that happens inside their Long Island home while their trying to exploit promote their own child’s career. Rock on Ben.
What started out as a simple idea - hatched over coffee a year ago - has finally blossomed into the first GingerFly program. The name GingerFly comes from this awesome flower called the Butterfly Ginger Lily.
A beautiful flower that embodies what The GingerFly is all about - metamorphosis, growth from small beginnings, the spirit of flight, and cross pollination of good energy (follow all of that?
The experience of brainstorming an idea, putting it to paper, pitching it to others, reworking it, re-pitching it, planning it… and then one day turning around and you are DOING IT– can be exhilarating. What makes the whole thing so crazy is that that very experience is the one we’re trying to create for the members of the program.
For the past two months I along with other members of the Writers Give Back crew went to Chicago, IL to test out a program where we use the process of filmmaking to teach kids about team building, communication, writing, and project planning. We were based at The Gary Comer Youth Center, a state of the art center dedicated to providing after school activities for children of all ages in the surrounding community. We were one of many amazing programs chosen to participate, and we were certainly honored to be a part of it.
The immediate community outside of the center, dubbed “The Pocket” is a high-risk, high-crime area on Chicago’s south side. Serving as a brightly colored oasis, the center seemed to be an amazing refuge for the realities the children face day in and day out. The words gun violence served as a prominent theme in every song, art work, dance routine, and poem spun in the center’s halls. They held rallies, they cried over lost friends and family, they made documentaries, they made songs, they stayed inside - all as a part of the apparent epidemic facing the City of Chicago. It meant more than what words can describe to be a part of the thing they did rather than be on the streets.
Aside from the fact that the kids were super smart, energetic, and eager to just “make something,” what was truly amazing was watching their process of discovery. The little “ah ha!” moments that would race across their faces as they learned something new. Then to juxtapose these moments against the lives of the children outside of the center - there were foster kids, kids who were basically parents to smaller kids, kids who attended AP classes at prep schools, and kids with learning disabilities all learning together, something new. I finally kind of understood why good teachers teach. The high you get from witnessing that moment- I don’t think ever gets old.
KNBC finally aired their segment on the Young Storytellers Foundation. It was a cute piece about the program and what exactly it does. They picked the cutest kid in the class to follow, of course ( pretty people even have a place on the news too!), but those of us here at WGB might argue that they didn’t pick the cutest mentor. Boo!!!I wore my WGB t-shirt and everything!!!! Seriously though, if you’ve wanted to mentor and had any reservations about it, I think that this would give you a nice visual aid as to what it is like. Check it out, HERE.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Citing tiger population counts that have dwindled to a few thousand, several Hollywood stars have come out in support of a preservation campaign announced Monday by the World Bank.
Harrison Ford and World Bank head Robert Zoellick meet children participating in a tiger conservation project.
The head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, told those gathered at a news conference at the National Zoo that the conservation initiative will find out “how to work with the local communities, so we can preserve some of the areas in which the tigers live.”
Actor Harrison Ford, known for his support of environmental causes, said, “I’m here to celebrate the World Bank’s plan to form a global alliance of conservation partners, to work with the tiger range nations in order to secure a future for these magnificent creatures.”
The audience included former actress Bo Derek, now a special envoy at the State Department fighting trafficking in wildlife. She told CNN the World Bank’s initiative to save the tigers should help counter “demand for their body parts, mainly in Asia,” and “loss of habitat” caused by the exploitation of natural resources. Watch Derek talk about her role in conservation
Actor Robert Duvall, who lives in the Virginia countryside about 50 miles from Washington, came in to lend his “moral support” to the World Bank’s initiative for tigers.
“I’ve always thought they might be the single most beautiful animal in the world,” Duvall told CNN, adding that “people hunt them like crazy. They’re wacko when it comes to shooting things.”
The World Bank will initially explore local and regional programs that have worked against poaching of endangered tigers, and will next determine how much financing it would take to help replicate the programs elsewhere.
Regional programs against tiger poaching are linked with rising populations tallied in the Russian Far East, according to the report from the World Bank.
The World Bank’s initiative will focus 13 countries where tiger poaching threatens remaining populations in the wild: Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Indonesia, India, Russia and Vietnam.
I just wanted to let you know that the new children’s books you’ve donated have found a terrific home. First Book, our partner in the book drive facilitated our donation to the Dubnoff School in North Hollywood. From their website: “The Dubnoff School was established in 1948 as a private school for elementary age children with special learning and developmental needs. The Dubnoff Center pioneered the development of educational programs and curricula to enable the child with atypical development to learn and develop as normally as possible within a personalized, structured and therapeutic learning environment.” So, basically they are dealing with kids in grades 5-12 with a variety of issues from learning disabilities to emotional issues, and the lovely staff member I met there today, Dawnica, told me that they are really trying to get the kids to read more in school and outside of school. Thanks to your generous donations that is is going to be easier to accomplish, since we just grew their library by about 300 new books!I hadn’t been in an elementary school in years, and over the last few months with WGB, I’ve been in three in the Los Angeles area. It is really quite fascinating to see to the socio-economic differences that occur from school to school and the way that affects a child… I can guarantee if you had been to this school with me today, you would feel great about where these books went. The principal was so very appreciative, and I told her to let me know if there was any other way WGB could help to let me know-so don’t be surprised if I harass you with emails to get you to help out that school in some way…I saw somewhere we have the ability to help, and now I have like 10.000 ideas. You’ve been warned
The Young Storytellers Big Show took place on Thursday May 22nd, and it was quite an evening. Writers Give Back had teamed with the Young Storytellers Foundation to help staff the group with mentors. We had ten energetic kids in this group, and their stories were were as energetic as they are. Our head mentor Kat O’Brien did a fantastic job of making the kids feel like superstars, even creating thrones for them to sit on while watching their screenplays acted out. Kudos to Ally Hord and Kate Sargeant, who really proved they can do anything, including constructing thrones from a cardboard box. One never knows when that underused skill will come in handy. The actors were fantastic, bringing tons of life and energy to the kids stories. This is no small feat since the kids cast the actors 10 minutes before the show starts, and they don’t really have a chance to read the scripts ahead of time. During the course of the show, we got to see a baseball story, a princess’ royal coronation, an under water adventure, and a trip to Disneyland. I think the best part of watching these young kid’s stories brought to life, is how simply they approach things, and how they already base characters on their real life experiences. Some of the funniest moments came from the most honest lines. In closing I want to warn you: you have about 10 years before these kids grow up and join the workplace of Hollywood screenwriters. They’re hot on your tail, their stories are awesome (and they can’t even use profanity or write about relationships yet).Please check back to find out when KNBC will be airing they segment they shot on Thursday. It should give you a good idea what the program is all about.In the meantime if you want to learn more about the Young Storytellers Foundation you can visit www.youngstorytellers.com.
KNBC stopped by our session of the Young Storytellers mentoring program yesterday to film a segment. The kids, who are already superstars in training, loved the extra attention. My mentee actually tried to get me to pay the cameraman ($1) to put her on tape. (I declined.) They will also be coming by Thursday May 22nd, to tape our “Big Show,” where actors perform the kids’ screenplays for them. Details to follow on when that will air….
What started out as a simple idea - hatched over coffee a year ago - has finally blossomed into the first GingerFly program. The name GingerFly comes from this awesome flower called the Butterfly Ginger Lily.
KNBC finally aired their segment on the Young Storytellers Foundation. It was a cute piece about the program and what exactly it does. They picked the cutest kid in the class to follow, of course ( pretty people even have a place on the news too!), but those of us here at WGB might argue that they didn’t pick the cutest mentor. Boo!!!I wore my WGB t-shirt and everything!!!! Seriously though, if you’ve wanted to mentor and had any reservations about it, I think that this would give you a nice visual aid as to what it is like. Check it out, 
