Alicia Keys: Playing on a different scale

Alicia Keys may be one of the few popular music artists to have more humanitarian causes than she does hit records, and let’s just say she has a ton of hit records under her belt.  As co-founder of the non-profit Keep A Child Alive organization which provides treatment to African children and families with HIV/AIDS and the face of the organization’s TEXT ALIVE campaign which accepts micro $5 donations via text messaging- Key’s has been more of a humanitarian this year than she has been a nine time Grammy Award winning musician, and that is no easy accomplishment.

Key’s humanitarian efforts began in 2001, shortly after 9/11, as a performer for the televised benefit concert America: A Tribute to Heroes which raised more than $150 million dollars for 9/11 victims’ families.  Shortly before the tragedy of  9/11, she submitted her singing talents to a rendition of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going on which also included Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Destiny’s Child, Gwen Stefani and the Backstreet Boys in what could be described as this decade’s “We Are the World” anthem. The song’s original intent was to fight AIDS in Africa but eventually after 9/11, proceeds from the song went to the American Red Crosses’ 9/11 efforts. In 2005, after the devastation of Katrina, Keys also performed at two Hurricane Katrina benefit concerts that together raised over $60 million dollars towards the organizations Feeding America, American Red Cross and the Salvation Army’s Katrina recovery efforts.

After helping the country’s efforts to rebuild from terrorism and natural disaster, Alicia turned her piano to another country in dire need of help, Africa. After traveling to many of its HIV/AIDS stricken sub-Saharan countries and realizing the impact that she could have on the crises, she began filming a documentary, Alicia in Africa to raise awareness about more than just the effects of the pandemic, but the treatment, stigmas and taboos associated with the virus that also plagues the African people.

In 2007, Keys cofounded Keep A Child Alive, which is based on the premise that $1 a day, per year can keep an African child with AIDS alive. Since 2007, KCA has raised millions of dollars for the organization and has built medical centers and made life saving medicines available to children and families effected by the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

In 2008 KCA began its technologically innovative TEXT ALIVE campaign, one of the first and most successful mobile phone donation campaigns of its kind. It allowed cell phone subscribers to instantly donate $5 to $10 to KCA.

In May, Keys appeared on the oft-watched, hit reality television show American Idol where she introduced TEXT ALIVE and subsequently raised more than $450,000 within minutes of asking viewers for help.

KCA’s TEXT ALIVE initiative also raised over $130,000 after Keys plead for viewer donations on the the 2009 BET Awards, where she was also the recipient of the show’s 2009 Humanitarian Award, which has previously been accepted by the likes of Quincy Jones, Wyclef Jean and Harry Belafonte.

Going even further, Keys anticipated her latest album, The Element of Freedom to be released on December  1, in conjunction with World Aids Day, but wasn’t able to because of additional recording. Instead, she held a benefit concert in New York where all of the proceeds went to Keep A Child Alive.

While other musicians are trying to keep a hit record spinning on the radio, Alicia Keys is trying to keep a child alive.

www.keepachildalive.org

Commonweal for school

The Commonweal Foundation was established in Washington D.C in the turbulent yet progressive year of 1968 and was then called the College Fund. As its previous name implied, it provided loans for students who needed help paying for college. But in the 80s, the College Fund changed its name to the Commonweal foundation and it also switched its focus from college level to high school offering expansive services for financially disadvantaged students beyond loans, including scholarships, grants and learning support programs.

Their Partners in Learning Program helps elementary school students in low income and impoverished areas improve their math and reading skills, which many do not have a basic understanding of. This free help is available at over 40 sites and in community centers in Washington D.C and both PG and Montgomery counties. As an added bonus, after completion of the program, students receive free books.

Commonweal also has a unique program called Pathways to Success which provides scholarships for disadvantaged youth to go to prestigious college preparatory boarding schools and leave typically urban environments to experience a different lifestyle and education.

One of Commonweal’s most ambitious and expansive funding programs is the five part School Enhancement Program. It funds a partner school’s remedial education services that helps struggling students get caught up with the rest of their excelling peers. It also helps contract school counselors who can guide Pathway to Success students through what can be a tough academic and social year for some. There is a student work component that teaches students valuable and usable work skills and a component called Academic Excellence for All that seeks to enhance and refine a students’ English, Math, Science and Foreign Language skills. If Shakespeare, Calculus and French weren’t enough, the School Enhancement Program also has a grant for school equipment that can reasonably include “interactive whiteboards and research lab equipment.

The Commonweal Foundation goes really far in its philanthropic reach helping people in all different student age groups as well as their schools. Not only does Commonweal give a helping hand to struggling students, but they also extend a direct hand to schools, organizations and communities to confront the systemic problem of lack of education and/or educational resources in low income community.

The commonwealth of our students and their schools is actually the commonwealth of all.

http://www.cweal.org

Higher Learning

The CollegeBound Foundation is probably one of the most effective and helpful organizations in Baltimore City when it comes to that period of uncertainty that is the last two years of high school for your typically disadvantaged Baltimore City public high school student.

The foundation offers a vast array of services through in-school counselors that include but aren’t limited to help selecting the right college, help filling out those tricky financial aid forms correctly, college tours, financial waivers associated with the application process and to those eligible, scholarships and grants. But most of all, for a student who may have never considered college or thought of it as too far off, encouragement and the resources to make a dream, a reality.

In addition to your regular guidance counselor, who might seem more focused on getting you out of high school than into college, students have the option of a College Bound counselor who is extremely knowledgeable about the college admissions process and whose sole job it is to make sure you understand and are prepared for what can be a rigorous and complicated process.  CBF helps in three critical areas- choosing a college, applying for college, and paying for college and once you actually have a few credits and an ID that allows you to get half price at the bar, CBF helps you adjust to the college life, which can be quite daunting for an inner city student.

http://www.collegeboundfoundation.org/home.html

Have a heart

 Aforementioned in a previous post, my grandmother recently passed away from a massive heart attack. My biological grandfather also passed away from a heart attack in 1993. I didn’t really know my biological grandfather however, seeing the impact that my grandparents death had on the family and I, has caused me to look at the impact it has on America as a whole.

Heart Walk participants making a heart

The number one killer for both men and women is heart disease.  It was projected that this year alone heart disease will cost more than $304 BILLION, when including health care, medications and lost productivity. So why not help the cause, they’re in desperate need of it?

My mother has been volunteering with the American Heart Association for some years now with the Greater Washington Region’s Heart Walk. This years Greater Washington Region walk took place on November 14, 2009 and is 2.9 miles long starting from the National Mall. The Greater Washington area raised an astounding  $1,642,361 in donations this year. And I’m extremely please with the fact that my mother is apart of this. I’ve donated before of course but now I want to…have to do more!

To join the cause, help to donate to the cause, or find out any information visit their website.

Grammy: Giving more than just awards

Grammy nominations ceremony

On December 2nd the Grammys announced the nominees for their 52nd awards ceremony scheduled to be held January 31, 2010. Singer, songwriter, philanthropist, and actress, Beyoncé led the pack with 10 nods, while pop-country artist and songwriter, Taylor Swift, followed closely behind her with eight. Other nominees included Jay-Z and Kings of Leon with four nods, Lady Gaga with five nods and Kanye West with six nods.

While many people will follow the nominees and  the development of the actual show for the next two months,  many more don’t even know the community service  Grammy has done for music that benefits under privilege children. With education opportunities such as:  Grammys in the School, Preservation Advancement, the Grammy foundation and much more.

Recently, the Grammy foundation joined forces with Campbell’s this past August and will be working with them until June of 2010 and donating money to different schools to help maintain great music programs. And one of their most popular programs is the Grammy summer camp which gives students to opportunity to work with Grammy winning artists. They also have an essay competition that awards more than $10,000 in scholarships.

It’s always refreshing to see such a powerful entity  doing community service that’s totally necessary, especially for music programs.

Tri Delta for St. Jude’s

The sorority Delta Delta Delta (Tri Delta) is having a fundraiser at the Chik-Fil-A  on Joppa Rd. They are raising money for St. Jude’s, a foundation they’ve supported for the last 10 years. Take a look at the video to check out how it all got started and where they are now. I also noticed she was holding a dolphin in her hand, I was lost as to why, but find out with me!

Video Correction: Tri Delta has raised $7 million for St. Jude’s, not the $1 million that was reported in the video.

Tiger Woods: Far more good than bad

Tiger woods playing golf

Today I heard the funniest joke ever about the new Tiger Woods scandal and it said “Tiger Woods should change his name to….CHEETAH!”and I could not stop laughing. I understand that everyone is so concentrated on his alleged cheating on his wife but lets not forget all the good that he has done.

Tiger Woods philanthropy has helped children around America immensely. Since 1996 the Tiger Woods Foundation has generated over $50 million dollars.  The center was started by Tiger Woods and his father and has sense branched off into many different sectors: Tiger Woods Learning Center, Tiger Woods Action Plan, Chevron World Challenge , Tiger’s Block Party, AT&T National and Tiger Jam.

Unfortunately, Tiger Woods posted on his website that he couldn’t participate in the annual Chevron World Challenge this weekend due to the injuries he sustained in the car accident. “I am extremely disappointed that I will not be at my tournament this week,” Tiger says.”I am certain it will be an outstanding event and I’m very sorry that I can’t be there.”

I remember when Michael Jordan cheated on his wife, or how Bill Clinton cheated on his and they were quickly scrutinized. It’s extremely asinine and disheartening to me to know how quickly we can change our views on people negatively,  no matter how much good they’ve done and how hard they’ve worked to build an almost perfect resume. We sometimes forget that were all human and make mistakes. One minute were adored and the next were scorned.

Fighting for change: Interview with Deverick Murry

Passion, conviction, staunch opinions and relevant facts are all seen in this interview with Deverick Murry the Black Student Union (BSU) President. This is Mr. Murry’s second year as the president and he has more dreams and ambitions for the BSU than ever before.

I must admit, I’m more than elated and inspired when I see Black males fighting for a change within their own community. Earlier I loaded an excerpt from the interview for my feature story, well, this is the entire interview and it’s captivating from the beginning until the end.

Have you ever seen someone this driven for change?

Where in the world is Graffiti on Paper?

The last month has been exceptionally hard for me. Why? Well, because I’ve been swamped with Resident Assistant (RA) duties, going to class, class work, looking for an internship, meetings, practices, and much, much more. But the hardest thing has been trying to manage all this and cope with the passing of my grandmother, Beatrice L. Lightfoot.

I must admit I haven’t been doing so well because she and I were extremely close. While some people can work through losing a close loved one, I realized that I can’t. It sucks because work began to pile up on me and I lost my drive to do it, I started to just live in squalor.

Eventually, a.k.a. this Thanksgiving, I thought about her tremendously and know for a fact, that she wouldn’t be pleased with me mourning for weeks and weeks over her and not doing what I’m supposed to do. Afterall, she gave me a magnificent art kit to paint, a miniature clarinet to remind of my real one, a carving of jazz musicians playing music and so much more. Not to mention she was certainly behind my urban surge idea, so how could I let what she supported and funded go to waste?

I’m crying now as you can imagine, as I know it’s going to take some time let her go and for me to make up for lost time. As for now and with this blog especially, I’ll be posting away! Anything that deals with philanthropy that I can get my hands on, no pun intended, you’ll hear about.

One of my next few post will be dedicated to her and will be on the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk because she died of a massive heart attack and how ironic, my mother volunteers and raises money for the Heart Walk as well.

In light of  everything, I would like to just say thanks for all the support and baring with me during that tumultuous time, but I’m back with my eyes fixed, ears open, mind clear, and pencil up; ready to give this blog all that I’ve got.

Ravens like Turkeys

Ray Lewis giving out turkeys.

While many Baltimore Ravens fans may not be thankful for the team’s performance this season, many needy families in Baltimore will be thanking the team this Thanksgiving. Each Thanksgiving, many of the players participate in outreach initiatives for Baltimore’s needy providing them with not just autographs but everything from turkey dinners to household supplies. Star linebacker Ray Lewis holds an annual turkey distribution where he literally hands out turkeys.

Lewis is also a major donor to the Bea Gaddy Family Center which for years, have provided disadvantaged Baltimoreans with assistance and a legendary turkey day dinner. The Raven’s famed “Three Headed Monsters” Ray Rice, Willis MacGahee and Leron McClain also passed out turkeys last year in Columbia Maryland. For the past three years Bart Scoop has served Thanksgiving dinner at Helping Up homeless shelter and last year did it with the help of players Antwan Barnes, Edgar Jones, and Daniel Wilcox. But too often, philanthropy is only thought about when it involves Christmas trees or cranberry sauce. Sunday, November 22nd, before this upcoming Thanksgiving, the team hosted the 14th annual Family Food and Funds Drive and a virtual online food drive for the month of November that fundraised over $10,000.

In conjunction with the grocer Shoppers Food Club, the Ravens have helped in donation efforts that generated 5000 pounds of food for the stadium’s food drive. Though the Ravens may not be performing as well on the 60 yard line, they are doing an outstanding job uplifting others in the lines of soup kitchens, food banks and shelters around their town.