Look To The Stars News: Gloria Estefan

American Idol Gives Back $67 Million

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:30:00 -0000

David Beckham, Bono, Annie Lennox and Carrie Underwood have all accepted cheques from April’s Idol Gives Back event on behalf of the charities they support.

The show raised over US$67 million for charities such as the Global Fund, Malaria No More, the Children’s Health Fund, Save the Children, and the Children’s Defense Fund.

“I saw first hand with my visit to Sierra Leone with UNICEF last year how devastating malaria can be to a country,“ said Beckham, who was presented with US$12 million by Idol winner David Cook on behalf of Malaria No More. “This money will help buy millions of bed nets and also protect many people, particularly the young children who are most vulnerable.”

Annie Lennox was also delighted to receive $500,000 for the Treatment Action Campaign.

“This is just to express my gratitude to everyone on Idol Gives Back, for putting together a show with a difference, and for inviting me to be part of it,“ she said in a statement. “Because of this event, and the generosity of the viewers, who donated so kindly, I have been able to hand over a cheque for the amazing sum of $500,000 to Treatment Action Campaign, in South Africa. I can assure everyone that every single dollar contributed will go to excellent use, in the work to educate, assist and support people living on the frontline of the HIV/Aids pandemic, many of whom are women and children. Thank you so much.“

Bono received US$10 million on behalf of the Global Fund For AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

“The Global Fund will keep thousands of people safe from HIV/AIDS because American Idol has donated $10 million,” said the U2 frontman. “That’s YOU people, who sent in your hard earned cash.”

The Idol Gives Back show featured appearances and performances by Snoop Dogg, John Legend, Miley Ray Cyrus, Annie Lennox, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan, Sheila E., Fergie, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Peyton and Eli Manning, and Reese Witherspoon, and pre-taped messages from David and Victoria Beckham, Kiefer Sutherland, Ellen DeGeneres, Jim Carrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. Britney Spears, who couldn’t be at the event, donate $25,000 to the cause.

Gloria Estefan To Receive Humanitarian Honor

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:30:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Grammy winner Gloria Estefan will be honored as the 2008 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year for her philanthropic, professional and cultural accomplishments.

The 50-year-old pop star will receive the honor at a star-studded concert and tribute dinner on November 12 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, with a portion of the proceeds from the evening’s tribute dinner going to the Gloria Estefan Foundation and the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“The Latin Recording Academy and its Board of Trustees are elated to recognize Gloria Estefan as an extraordinary Latina woman, humanitarian and talented musician who has made a global impact on music and culture,” said Latin Recording Academy President Gabriel Abaroa. “She is one of Latin music’s most enduring icons, and we are privileged to be honoring such a dedicated, generous, and gifted lady.”

Estefan – who will play concerts in October benefiting schools – established the Gloria Estefan Foundation to promote good health, education and cultural development. One of the main benefactors of the Foundation is the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis – the leading research center for spinal cord injuries. She also served as chairwoman for a campaign that raised more than $40 million to build the Lois Pope Life Center neurological research facility.

Sports Stars To Raise Money To Cure Paralysis

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:30:00 -0000

Sports luminaries and philanthropy icons will be recognized when they gather at the 23rd Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner on Monday, September 22, at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

Bob Costas has been named the Master of Ceremonies for the event which will benefit the Buoniconti Fund To Cure Paralysis, a nonprofit organization that serves as the national fundraising arm of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis – the world’s largest, most comprehensive spinal cord injury research center.

This spectacular annual event is expected to sell out to over 1,300 guests and raise millions of dollars for spinal cord injury research. The event begins at 6:00 p.m. with a cocktail reception and silent auction, followed by dinner, which will include a live auction of one-of-a-kind sports memorabilia and other unique items.

“Each year we are honored by the presence of the most elite athletes in sports,” says Nick Buoniconti, founder of The Buoniconti Fund and defensive captain of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins. “This year’s group of honorees represent such a high caliber of sports, we are truly thrilled that they will be joining us for yet another spectacular event. We have made significant steps this year towards finding a cure for spinal cord injuries. That’s why we keep doing this.”

The 2008 Great Sports Legends that will be honored at the event and are expected to attend are: Andre Agassi – former world-ranked #1 professional tennis star, Jerry Rice – named All-Pro 10 times in his 20 NFL seasons, Scottie Pippen – seven-time NBA All Star, Joe Gibbs – Hall of Fame NFL coach and NASCAR Championship team owner, Helio Castroneves – winner of the Indianapolis 500 in both 2001 and 2002, Richard “Goose” Gossage – former New York Yankees pitcher, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini – World Boxing Association lightweight champion for two years in the 1980s, Angelo Dundee – boxing cornerman who has worked with 15 world boxing champions, and Gabrielle Reece – American professional volleyball player, sports presenter and former fashion model.

Over the past two decades, the Great Sports Legends Dinner has honored 337 of the world’s greatest athletes and individuals. They are recognized for their contributions to the world of sports and acknowledged for their commitment to high ethical standards, to their community, worthy causes and achievements as positive role models. Their participation has helped raise more than $40 million for The Miami Project’s spinal cord injury research programs. Former honorees include Magic Johnson, John Elway, Mark Messier, Gary Player, Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, Mickey Mantle, Jack Nicklaus, Gloria Estefan, Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky, Patrick Ewing, Walter Cronkite, Mia Hamm, Dan Marino, and Joe DiMaggio.

In 1985, Barth A. Green, MD, and NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti helped found The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis after Nick’s son, Marc, sustained a spinal cord injury during a college football game. Today, The Miami Project is the world’s largest, most comprehensive spinal cord injury research center, housed in the Lois Pope LIFE Center, a Center of Excellence at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The Miami Project’s international team of more than 200 scientists, researchers and clinicians take innovative approaches to the challenge of spinal cord injury. Committed to finding a cure for paralysis resulting from spinal cord injury and to seeing millions worldwide walk again, the Buoniconti family established The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis in 1992, a non-profit organization devoted to assisting The Miami Project achieve its national and international goals.

Tickets start at $850 per person. Sponsorships and opportunities to sit with Legends are available. Tables and tickets can be purchased by phone at (305) 243-4656, (212) 245-6570 or online at http://www.miamiproject.miami.edu/x1415.xml.

Gloria Estefan To Play Charity Concert

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:30:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

The rhythm is gonna get you in October – if you are lucky enough to attend a special charity concert by Gloria Estefan.

The Latino singer will be performing at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Miami on October 24, in a special show to raise money for The Education Fund, which benefits public schools in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Indian River counties.

“Knowing that our school budgets have been severely affected by the economy, I felt it important to raise awareness and donate necessary funding to assist however we can,” said Estefan. “My mother was a school teacher, so I know first-hand the importance that teachers and education play in the lives of our youths. Education is really our future. If we don’t educate our kids, where are we going to go, so I think it’s important that somehow we find a way to make our educational system stronger.”

Tickets go on sale on August 15, and more information can be found at the Hard Rock website.

Idol Gives Back On Wednesday

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:11:53 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

It will be raining philanthropic celebrities on Wednesday night when American Idol Gives Back airs on the Fox Network. The “star clouds” are set to burst with a gala of music, fun, appearances, and surprises – all in the name of charity.

Idol host Ryan Seacrest will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the event, which was taped in front of a lively audience at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday night, and producers expect this year’s event to raise over $100 million for charity.

“Tonight isn’t just about raising money,” said Brad Pitt, one of the many guests to attend the gala. “Sometimes, to help people, we’ve got to travel outside of our comfort zone to really understand another situation.”

Pitt’s Make It Right campaign, which he launched to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, is one of many good causes to benefit from the event, which last year netted over $76 million for charity. Other organizations to benefit this year include the Global Fund, Malaria No More, the Children’s Health Fund, Save the Children, and the Children’s Defense Fund.

“It’s not about self-promoting,” said former Idol winner Carrie Underwood, who will perform on the show. “It’s not about singing your latest single. It’s not about trying to be the most downloaded whatever on iTunes. It’s all about getting people to call in and do something.”

Viewers of the show on Wednesday can expect performances by Snoop Dogg, John Legend, Miley Ray Cyrus, Annie Lennox, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan, and Sheila E., as well as a surprise duet between Fergie and Heart. The show will also be sprinkled with appearances from Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Peyton and Eli Manning, and Reese Witherspoon, and pre-taped messages from David and Victoria Beckham, Kiefer Sutherland, Ellen DeGeneres, Jim Carrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama will also be shown.

DeGeneres Returns to Idol Gives Back

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:11:19 -0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

Ellen DeGeneres will once again be joining Ryan Seacrest to host the second edition of the wildly successful Idol Gives Back.

Also joining this year’s previously announced celebrity attendees such as Brad Pitt and Bono will be Maroon 5, Heart, Gloria Estefan, Boyz II Men and the Clark Brothers.

The hit fundraising show raised $76 million last year, benefitting charities such as UNICEF, Malaria No More and Second Harvest.

Lil' Kim Cares About Charity

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:18:10 -0000

Written by Nadia Lias

There’s more to Grammy Award winner Lil’ Kim than music; she is also an established philanthropist. Often taking time to give back, she understands her social responsibility to the community and is committed to using her influence to inspire people.

The singer’s Lil’ Kim Cares Foundation has announced that Lil’ Kim is teaming up with MusiCares to raise funds through a silent auction being held at the Grammy’s On The Hill ceremony. The ceremony will take place in Washington, DC on September 5, 2007 at the Willard Continental.

The Grammy’s On The Hill ceremony presents awards to outstanding individuals who have improved the environment for the creative community. Among the award recipients are performers Missy Elliott, Natalie Cole, Gloria Estefan, Vince Gill and Kelly Clarkson, senators Lamar Alexander, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, representative Mary Bono, and congressman John Conyers.

Tafia L. Allah-Pringle, the publicist for Lil’ Kim Cares stated that, “Lil’ Kim has added her celebrity to the MusiCares Foundation. She joins a list of celebrities in donating a few of their collector’s items for this year’s Silent Auction to benefit MusiCares which is the charitable arm of the GRAMMYs that provides a safety net of critical services and programs to members of the music community facing a medical, financial, or personal crisis.”

Lil’ Kim Cares Foundation focuses on programs that provide positive impacts in communities worldwide. The Foundation raises funds, resources and awareness for national programs that assist with issues of homelessness, HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness, transitional living, child neglect and violence against women in impoverished neighborhoods.

Oprah Tops Celebrity Philanthropy A-List

Sat, 12 May 2007 08:24:15 -0000

Written by Steve Purcell

A list of the 30 largest public donations made by celebrities in the past year puts Oprah in the top spot.

The Giving Back Fund, which encourages and advises on celebrity philanthropy, compiles its list each year. President Marc Pollick said, “Encouragement-by-example is the main reason for the Giving Back 30 list.”

Oprah gave $58.3 million to Oprah’s Angel Network and her recently-opened Leadership Academy.

Of the other celebrities high on the list, Barbra Streisand was in fourth spot, having given $11.75 million through her Streisand Foundation.

Tiger Woods took fifth place, giving $9.5 million to organisations including the Tiger Woods Learning Center funded by the Tiger Woods Foundation.

Giving Back’s Marc Pollick praised an increasing trend in celebrity donations, saying, “Ten years ago when Slate magazine first published the Slate 60 reporting on the most generous American philanthropists, the last donor on their list gave $5 million. This year the last donor donated $30 million to charity. This is the type of growth we are hoping to inspire within the sports and entertainment community. One cannot help but be influenced by the generosity of his or her peers.”

The full list and information about how it was compiled can be found at givingback.org. This site has previously reported on many of the list’s featured celebrities and their donations; a comprehensively linked version of the list appears below:

Position	Celebrity	Donation	Cause(s)
1	Oprah Winfrey	$58,300,000	Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, Oprah’s Angel Network, and other groups
2	Geoffrey Beene	$44,000,000 (bequest)	Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
3	Jack and Marie Lord	$40,000,000 (bequest)	Hawaii Community Foundation
4	Barbra Streisand	$11,750,000	Streisand Foundation, numerous civil liberties, environmental, and civil rights organizations “dedicated to democratic values”
5	Tiger Woods	$9,500,000	Tiger Woods Learning Center, Earl D. Woods Sr. Scholarship Fund, and other Tiger Woods Foundation programs
6	Rosie O’Donnell	$5,700,000	Katrina Relief efforts including Renaissance Village (a temporary shelter for Katrina victims), day care centers, a rehabilitation center in San Antonio, and a Habitat For Humanity sub division in Baton Rouge
7	Martha Stewart	$5,000,000	New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital for a center on healthy aging
8	Carmelo Anthony	$4,282,000	CAF Youth Center in Baltimore, AAU Basketball, Syracuse University Recreational Center, and other charities
9	Pat Boone & Shirley Boone	$3,000,000	Pepperdine University for the Graduate School of Education and Psychology Center for the Family
9	LeRoy Neiman	$3,000,000	The School of the Art Institute of Chicago to support a Master’s class in figure drawing
11	Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt	$2,415,000	School and Community Center in Swakopmund in Namibia, Daniel Pearl Foundation, Namibian hospitals, Doctors Without Borders, Global Action for Children and others
12	Nicolas Cage	$2,000,000	Amnesty International for a fund to help child soldiers
12	Dwayne Johnson (“The Rock”) and Dany Garcia Johnson	$2,000,000	University of Miami to name new Alumni Center living room
12	Paul McCartney	$2,000,000	Adopt-A-Minefield
12	Arnold Palmer	$2,000,000	Pledged to the Arnold Palmer Foundation ultimately to benefit the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
16	David Geffen	$1,600,000	David Geffen Foundation
17	Susan Saint James and Dick Ebersol	$1,300,000	The Gunnery to help pay for a new dormitory in memory of their son Teddy killed in a plane crash
18	Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg	$1,250,000	Boston University to renovate facilities
19	Andre Agassi	$1,070,000	Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation
20	Tiki and Ronde Barber and family	$1,000,000	University of Virginia to support the McIntire School of Commerce, the Virginia Athletics Foundation, Childrens Hospital, a scholarship fund for African-American students, the Young Alumni Council, and to challenge young alumni to participate in the capital campaign
20	Bob Barker	$1,000,000	Georgetown University to endow a fund at its law school that will focus on the study of animal rights
20	Gloria Estefan	$1,000,000	Miami Paralysis Project
20	Dr. Phil McGraw & Robin McGraw	$1,000,000	Dr. Phil Foundation
20	George Steinbrenner & family	$1,000,000	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for Boshamer Stadium for baseball
20	Tony Stewart	$1,000,000	Victory Junction Gang Camp
20	Denzel Washington	$1,000,000	Save Africa’s Children
27	Mike Sexton	$560,000	Special Olympics, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, Children, Inc., Wounded Warrior Project, Ohio State University, and other charities
28	Lance Armstrong	$500,000	Lance Armstrong Foundation
28	Dolly Parton	$500,000	Fort Sanders Medical Center
28	Elizabeth Taylor	$500,000	New Orleans AIDS Task Force to purchase mobile medical unit for AIDS sufferers in New Orleans

Gloria Estefan Gala Attracts Stars, Money For Charity

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 16:11:51 -0000

Written by Steve Purcell

Friday Feb 9 saw the first ever Gloria Estefan Foundation Gala at the Miami Sound Machine singer’s mansion.

The charitable Foundation was started ten years ago by Gloria Estefan and husband Emilio, funded exclusively by the couple’s recording industry proceeds and other personal income. It has since given out over $3m to people and charities in need.

Wanting to extend the charity’s base of support to other wealthy individuals, the couple announced last month their plans to open their luxury home for the first time ever to host a gala and benefit concert called “En Casa con Gloria.”

The $5,000-a-seat event took place on Friday, featuring a cocktail reception, fine dining, dancing, and a live acoustic musical performance by Gloria and the Miami Sound Machine.

Attendees included local celebrities Rosie O’Donnell and Romero Britto, and the primary benefactor of the event is the Brain Institute at Miami Children’s Hospital.

“It was a truly remarkable and inspiring experience to meet some of the courageous young patients suffering from neurological disorders at Miami Children’s Hospital,” said Estefan.

“The children and their families now have new hope for the future thanks to the very special care and pioneering research taking place at the Miami Children’s Hospital Brain Institute.”

Estefan secured corporate sponsorship for the event from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, and other contributing organisations include Target, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, Bacardi, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Bank of America.

Look To The Stars News: Gloria Estefan

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