Look To The Stars News: Clay Aiken

Clay Aiken Is A Champion Of Change

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:30:00 -0000

Singer Clay Aiken performed at a special benefit for his own charity on Saturday night.

The 29-year-old sang at the 2008 “Champions of Change” event held in Raleigh on October 18 that honored companies and individuals who help promote the Bubel/Aiken Foundation’s mission give children with disabilities the opportunity to experience life with their peers.

Held at the Raleigh Marriott City Center, the event featured an auction that included a Tiffany bracelet, tickets to “Spamalot,” dinner with Aiken, clothing belonging to the American Idol runner-up, and a bust of his own head signed by Jimmy Kimmel!

The Foundation aims to bridge the gap that exists between young people with special needs and the world around them and provides services and financial assistance for the disabled community, creating awareness and recognizing ‘Champions of Change’.

Clay Aiken To Answer Your Questions

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:02:46 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Former American Idol contestant and star of Broadway’s Spamalot Clay Aiken has teamed up with an internet social networking site to talk about his charity work and to host an indepth interview featuring questions directly from readers and fans.

www.gather.com has posted a video featuring the singer talking about his experience with his charity, the Bubel/Aiken Foundation, as well as his work with UNICEF. The site will then interview the star next week, and is calling for questions from the public.

Aiken established the Bubel/Aiken Foundation in 2003. The initiative grew out of a relationship between Clay Aiken and 13-year-old Mike Bubel, who had been diagnosed with autism. Aiken met the Bubel family while pursuing a career in special education, prior to competing on American Idol. The bond between the singer and the Bubel family grew strong as they shared a vision of a world where children like Mike could be fully immersed in society. Both Aiken and Mike’s mother, Diane, had witnessed children with disabilities repeatedly turned away from activities opened to typical children. They knew with the right support system doors could be opened to these individuals that had thus far remained closed. An organized effort could encourage and facilitate community inclusion and empowerment of individuals with disabilities.

Aiken has also been a UNICEF Ambassador since 2004. In 2005, he toured tsunami-stricken Banda Aceh to highlight the need to restore education to young survivors. This was followed by a trip to Uganda to raise awareness of “Night Commuters” – children who flee the villages and towns every night to sleep in shelters in order to avoid kidnapping by the Lord’s Resistance Army. In 2007 he visited children in Mexico.

Questions for the Gather interview can be submitted to the site’s Music Editor, and the video can be seen at Gather’s special Clay Nation page.

American Idol Announces Second Annual Charity Show

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:37:27 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

American Idol fans and readers of Look To The Stars should mark April 9 in their diaries, as that is the date set for the second annual “Idol Gives Back” charity show.

The Fox Network announced the date yesterday, and the guest lineup already includes Bono, Brad Pitt, Miley Ray Cyrus, Fergie, Carrie Underwood, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, John Legend, Mariah Carey, Annie Lennox, Reese Witherspoon, Snoop Dogg, and Chris Daughtry, with more names to be added in the next few weeks.

Last year’s show, emceed by Ellen DeGeneres, raised a phenomenal $76 million to benefit underprivileged children in America and overseas.

American Idol is fast becoming a vehicle for good deeds. In 2007, former Idol winner Carrie Underwood visited children in Johannesburg, Clay Aiken took a trip to Mexico with UNICEF, and Idol judge Randy Jackson toured New Orleans and the region devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Jackson worked with programs backed by Save the Children, and because of that trip has been named the organization’s first U.S. programs ambassador.

Mark Shriver, managing director of US programs for Save the Children, said “Idol Gives Back” is crucial for raising awareness about children in poverty and quickly provides money to programs that help.

“American Idol is fantastic for raising the visibility of poverty in the U.S.,” he said.

Clay Aiken Visits Mexico With UNICEF

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 11:04:35 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Singer Clay Aiken has just returned from a Christmas spent in flood-ravaged Mexico, where he visited children affected by the country’s worst natural disaster for over a decade.

Aiken was accompanied by his mother and brother for the UNICEF trip, and witnessed the devastation and damage in the states of Tabasco and Chiapas.

“Floods are a horribly powerful natural disaster, and people in the eastern part of [these states] can attest to it more than anyone else can,” Aiken told WRAL.com. “You lose everything with a flood. Even with a tornado, you can run down the street and hopefully grab something that you lost.”

The November floods that that devastated Mexico left more than 700,000 people homeless, about two thirds of whom were children. Almost 70% of Tabasco was underwater during the disaster, and over 300,000 people required rescuing by emergency services.

Aiken is no stranger to visiting countries with UNICEF, and has been a UNICEF Ambassador since 2004. In 2005, he toured tsunami-stricken Banda Aceh to highlight the need to restore education to young survivors. This was followed by a trip to Uganda to raise awareness of “Night Commuters” – children who flee the villages and towns every night to sleep in shelters in order to avoid kidnapping by the Lord’s Resistance Army.

“Everyone deserves the best start in life, which is what UNICEF is working to provide the world’s most vulnerable children,” he said when he accepted the ambassadorship. “Education is essential to a child’s development. I hope that, as an Ambassador, I can encourage people to join UNICEF’s mission to make education a reality for children throughout the world.”

In 2006, Aiken was given the chance to sit on a committee that acts in an advisory capacity to the Department of Health and Human Services on people who suffer from intellectual disabilities. He followed this in 2007 with another UNICEF trip, this time to Afghanistan, where he launched the “$100,000 in 10 Days” campaign – a campaign that eventually raised $180,000 for UNICEF programs in the country.

During his recent trip to Mexico, the former American Idol contestant was amazed to witness the reaction of children who ran up to him in the streets and hugged him – not because they knew who Aiken was, but because they recognized the UNICEF shirt he was wearing and knew that he would bring help.

“How powerful that is, that kids all around the world know what UNICEF means,” he said.

Aiken is also extremely disappointed at the lack of assistance the Mexican people received from the US after the floods.

“There is, unfortunately, a lot of negative connotation that Americans get when they hear about Mexico, and I think that there’s apathy there,” he said. “I think people just don’t really care that much… it’s painful when you go down and you see these kids who don’t have shoes and they’re walking around on horribly contaminated ground, and all they wanted for Christmas, literally, [was] shoes.”

Clay Aiken is currently appearing in the New York production of “Monty Python’s Spamalot”, and also plans to head into the studio soon to record a new album.

Goo Goo Dolls to Play Benefit Gig

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:53:40 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

American rock band the Goo Goo Dolls are to end their current tour by playing a benefit gig at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on September 6. The band agreed to reschedule a June show for September, and all proceeds will go towards the Griffith Park Recovery Fund, an organization set up to help replenish the natural vegetation destroyed in the park during devastating forest fires in May.

“We are honored to headline such an important concert,” said Goo Goo Dolls singer, John Rzeznik.

The band was the first to offer their assistance, along with with performers including Clay Aiken, Tony Bennett and Los Lonely Boys.

Griffith Park is situated in the Santa Monica Mountains, and is one of the largest urban parks in North America. Over 800 acres of the park’s total 4200 acres was severely damaged during the May fires. An estimated $50 million is now needed to restore the park to its former glory and to stabilize the barren slopes. The Griffith Park Recovery Fund was set up by the Greek Theatre Advisory Committee, part of the Department of Recreation and Parks for the City of Los Angeles, to help in reaching this target.

The concert will be a suitable ending to the Goo Goo Dolls tour. The band, whose hits include “Iris”, “Slide”, and “Before It’s Too Late” from the recent “Transformers” soundtrack, is familiar with charitable causes, and has been collecting food for the needy at each of their gigs over the last few years. Concert-goers have been able to donate cans of food to USA Harvest before the shows, and the group’s last tour raised over 300,000 cans for the non-profit organization whose mission is to gather food from those who have too much and give it to those who have too little.

Tickets for the Griffith Park concert cost $45, and are available through www.nederlander.com and www.ticketmaster.com.

Look To The Stars News: Clay Aiken

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