Look To The Stars News: Children's Miracle Network

Dierks Bentley To Ride Twice For Charity

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:30:00 -0000

Country singer Dierks Bentley will host two Music and Miles charity motorcycle rides this year, in Nashville and Phoenix.

The Nashville ride will take place on October 11, and Bentley has enlisted the help of his country music friends Darius Rucker, Eric Church, Wynonna, Heidi Newfield and Michelle Branch for the all-day event that will also feature live music and lots of fun for the whole family.

The ride departs Cool Springs Harley Davidson at 1:00pm CT and will travel through Williamson County and downtown Nashville, finishing at Riverfront Park.

Proceeds from the ride will go to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, the most comprehensive Children’s Hospital in the state. A non-profit teaching and research hospital, the facility relies on the support of the public to help fund its work. Last year’s Music and Miles ride raised over $275,000 for the hospital.

The second ride will take place in Bentley’s hometown of Phoenix on November 21, and will benefit the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, the local Children’s Miracle Network medical facility.

“Phoenix Children’s provides so many amazing medical services for families in my hometown,” said Bentley. “It was an obvious choice when we decided to take this event on the road. The weather is perfect in Arizona in November, and we are going to do our best to pull out all the stops and raise some money for the community where I grew up. I hope everyone can come out.”

The hour-long ride will depart Buddy Stubbs Harley and travel along the Piestewa Peak Parkway to the Red Mountain Freeway, finishing at Tempe Marketplace.

Tickets to the rides are available through Ticketmaster.

Dierks Bentley To Ride Again For Music And Miles

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:30:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Country singer Dierks Bentley has enlisted the help of Darius Rucker and Eric Church for a concert to follow his fourth annual Miles and Music for Kids celebrity motorcycle ride on October 11 in Nashville.

Bentley raised over $275,000 for the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt during his third annual Music & Miles for Kids celebrity motorcycle ride last year, which also included a concert featuring Tim McGraw.

The 34-year-old singer is also working with the Children’s Miracle Network and CMT One Country to extend the Miles and Music for Kids event to six cities in 2009 and 2010, with all proceeds benefiting Children’s Miracle Network hospitals in those areas.

Tickets for the ride, concert and commemorative T-shirt are $50 from TicketMaster.

Marie Osmond Records PSA For Charity Initiative

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:00:00 -0000

On Thursday, August 13, Dairy Queen will host the 4th Annual North American “Miracle Treat Day,” when $1 or more from every Blizzard sold on that day will be donated to Children’s Miracle Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and improving the lives of children by raising funds for children’s hospitals.

Last year on Miracle Treat Day, Dairy Queen raised more than $4.5 million for 170 Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. A cause partner since 1984, Dairy Queen has raised more than $77 million and is one of the top five contributors to Children’s Miracle Network.

This year, Children’s Miracle Network co-founder Marie Osmond taped a PSA in support of the fundraiser to be distributed in advance of Miracle Treat Day to remind her loyal followers to cool off tastefully this summer and help save a child’s life. “Join me August 13 to help kids one Blizzard at a time!” said Marie.

“There are many inspiring people from all walks of life, but none more than young, hospitalized children who face incredible odds every day,” said Michael Keller, chief brand officer for International Dairy Queen, Inc. “It’s the courage of these children that makes Miracle Treat Day so meaningful and important to all of us in the Dairy Queen family and we thank everyone who comes out in support of this cause and helps to make Miracle Treat Day such a success.”

Dairy Queen will bring back the Girl Scouts Thin Mint Cookie Blizzard as the featured Blizzard of the Month for August, just in time to celebrate Miracle Treat Day. Girl Scouts Thin Mint Cookie is the most popular limited-time-offer Blizzard ever, since the first one was served upside down with a spoon in 1985. The Thin Mint Cookie Blizzard is made with creamy DQ vanilla soft serve blended with Girl Scouts Thin Mint Cookie pieces and a Crème de Menthe topping.

The incredible popularity of the Blizzard brand led Dairy Queen to initiate the Blizzard Fan Club last year, which has already grown to more than 1.3 million members (log on to www.blizzardfanclub.com). For more information about Miracle Treat Day or Dairy Queen, visit www.miracletreatday.com or www.dq.com.

LTTS Exclusive: An Interview With Angela And Vanessa Simmons

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:00:00 -0000

Written by Brandy Reynolds

Angela and Vanessa Simmons stared as themselves on two hit MTV shows, Run’s House and Daddy’s Girls. They own a clothing line, Pastry, and support the Children’s Miracle Network.

The Miracle Network Children’s Miracle Network is a non-profit organization that raises funds for more than 170 children’s hospitals. Countless individuals, organizations and media partners unite with Children’s Miracle Network hospitals to help sick and injured kids in local communities. Donations to Children’s Miracle Network create miracles by funding medical care, research and education that saves and improves the lives of 17 million children each year.

Why have you chosen to be ambassadors for this organization?

We support the Network because it’s a great organization. Their whole cause is for saving and helping children recover from traumatic experiences and disease – illnesses and situations that are out of their control. We’ve seen a couple of different units and the care that’s given to children, and we’re really impressed with the hospital as a whole and their dedication to children.

Since being named ambassadors for the organization, have you been able to raise more awareness for the organization?

There are a lot of people we have met, and we have things we’d like to donate and time we’d like to spend helping out wherever we can. Whatever we can do to help

Do you think females in Hollywood are doing a good job at raising awareness about the issues in our country?

I don’t think that people do enough, but then again what is enough at the end of the day. We want to help raise awareness and maybe help get some other celebrity friends involved. I think it’s important that they bring awareness to things that are important. We think that it’s important to bring these kids joy. Kids are our next everything, the next generation, it’s very important that they’re taken care of.

Where would you suggest other young girls start when it comes to volunteering for the Miracle Network, where did you start?

The organization was brought to us, and then we did some research to find out about what the organization was all about. We wanted to help anywhere we could help. We’d love to put in more time, it’s very touching to us, and we just really want to put in more time where we can.

Will any of your upcoming work reflect the charity work you have advocated for?

We work with the girl scouts, which was a great experience. Everything that we do we try to have some type of good cause behind it. We really feel that people in the industry need to realize the influence they have on the people around them. We have such a great voice and we all should be using it for a good cause and a good reason. Every day we try to live and do better and try to encourage and inspire people to do better. That’s all we can do – live for today. Also, Pastry will be launching a special contest with Children’s Miracle Network inviting children in their 170 hospitals across the country to design a special Pastry sneaker. The hospital where the winning child has received treatment will receive a special $25,000 donation from Pastry.

Both of you have done such a great job at being business women, philanthropist and role models. Can you give other young people out there some advice on how they can attain the success that you have?

Number one, we think you have to find your hobby, passion, and find what you love to do – stick with it and pursue it hard. Keep going as hard as you can and I guarantee there will be no one that can stop you. Even though there will never be a quick success. Once you start, you might get there quick, but it takes a lot of time and effort and dedication and love for what you want to do. My acting coach told me yesterday about the 10,000-hour rule. Like, did you know that the Beatles had performed for like years and years and years before they became this big mega group? Whatever you put your time and effort in to, keep going and the idea is that after the 10,000 hours of working, you will sky rocket. Most people don’t blow up over night. Even we are still growing and learning every day. It’s a slow process, definitely. We’re so super blessed and thankful, but we’re just trying to grow and help were we can. Because we think that what you put into the universe you get back, and it’s important that people understand that.

Look To The Stars would like to thank Angela and Vanessa Simmons for taking the time to talk with us.

LeAnn Rimes Wins Humanitarian Award

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:30:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Country singer LeAnn Rimes was awarded a special Humanitarian Award at the American Country Music Awards in Las Vegas on Saturday, April 4.

The 26-year-old singer joined stars such as Carrie Underwood, Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban and many more famous faces from the country music world at the awards, and picked up her accolade for her ongoing community service, especially in regard to children’s charities.

“I’ve been doing humanitarian work for many years, and you do it out of the goodness of your heart,” she said. “I mean, the Humanitarian Award at the ACM’s never really crossed my mind. But it’s a huge honor.”

Rimes – a spokesperson for the Children’s Miracle Network – works with several charities, such as the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and A Star For The Night. Last year she was one of the many country artists to auction signed kiss cards for the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, and has also in the past helped to launch The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Christmas Campaign.

“It’s part of what I do,” she explained. “It makes me feel good, you know. It’s part of, I think, my responsibility as a human being — but as also a celebrity — to be able to do good for other people.”

The Osmonds Are Back For Charity

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:34:00 -0000

Written by Dawn Fantasia

Words can not express the gratitude that Marie Osmond has for the staff at the Children’s Hospital for Wales after they saved her five-year-old son Stephen’s life during a severe asthma attack.

“I was in my bus touring, and he stopped breathing and turned blue and his machine didn’t work,” said Marie. “I remember I said a prayer, and we drove probably 100mph down the road in a bus, and there was a children’s hospital. They rushed him in there and they saved his life.”

She and her brothers plan to show their appreciation with the support of the Noah’s Ark Appeal to purchase new state-of-the-art equipment for the hospital to help make it one of the best hospitals in the world. Marie Osmond is co-founder, along with John Schneider, of the Children’s Miracle Network, a project of The Osmond Foundation. The initiative has raised over $3.4 billion since 1983 for children’s hospitals throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The Children’s Hospital for Wales joins Bristol and Dublin hospitals in becoming a partner. In 2009 they will have the opportunity to nominate a “champion child” to go to Disney World. Each year one child and their family is chosen from each of the children’s hospitals in the Children’s Miracle Network to represent the hospital at Disney World.

Marie Osmond also has asthma, which may have caused her to faint during the reality show “Dancing With the Stars”. She said, “Right at the beginning I started getting light-headed. And the only thing I could think of [is] I have allergies, there’s almost half a million people being evacuated, the air quality is terrible – and I just couldn’t get my breath.”

Over 6.8 million children under age 18 have asthma. Asthma is the leading cause of school absences and the third leading cause of hospitalizations for children. The cost of treating these children is over $3.2 billion a year. American Lung Association Asthma Clinical Research Centers are involved with working on asthma prevention and treatments. Many communities have developed asthma-friendly schools and emergency plans to educate school staff and students with helping someone during a severe asthma attack.

If you would like to make a difference in a child’s life, contact www.noahs-ark-appeal.org. For more information about asthma, contact a Local Lung Association in your area at 1-800-LUNGUSA.

LeAnn Rimes To Perform For Children's Charity

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:41:06 -0000

Written by Elizabeth Willoughby

Country music singer LeAnn Rimes will perform on stage this summer for the Children’s Miracle Network.

Rimes, the youngest person to ever win a Grammy, has been hosting special events, raising awareness about the ongoing need for community support of children’s hospitals, and visiting children in hospitals since she was announced as the Children’s Miracle Network spokesperson in 2004. The “voice” of Children’s Miracle Network is now heading to Wisconsin to raise money by performing in Wausau for 7000 fans.

Following the successful fund raising concerts of country singer Sara Evans and rock band The Violent Femmes, Kinzie Benefit Concerts has booked Rimes to perform at the Amphitheater at Marathon Park on June 28.

“She’s a good, versatile performer, and she’ll draw a lot of people,” said Kirk Howard, Kinzie Benefit Concerts manager.

“[Children’s Miracle Network] treats more than 17 million kids a year and cares passionately about their work,” said Rimes, happy to contribute to the charity event. “It has become a very rewarding experience to be involved with the children, and I am inspired by their spirit and bravery. Meeting a 3-year-old cancer survivor or a kindergartner with a strong new heart has motivated me to become actively involved with my time and my heart. It’s a gift to be able to be of help.”

Music begins at 6 p.m., with two additional national and regional bands to be announced. More information can be found at www.kinziebenefitconcerts.com.

Look To The Stars News: Children's Miracle Network

Dierks Bentley To Ride Twice For Charity

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Dierks Bentley To Ride Again For Music And Miles

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Marie Osmond Records PSA For Charity Initiative

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LTTS Exclusive: An Interview With Angela And Vanessa Simmons

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LeAnn Rimes Wins Humanitarian Award

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