Look To The Stars News: Show Me Campaign

Legend, Doolittle Honor Sachs and Soros

Mon, 19 May 2008 10:56:00 -0000

The Millennium Promise and Malaria No More Annual Benefit took place last week at The Tent at Lincoln Center, raising over $2 million for the fight against extreme poverty and disease. The event honored the charities’ founders, Raymond G. Chambers, Peter Chernin, Professor Jeffrey Sachs and George Soros.

Grammy-winner John Legend presented an award to Jeffrey Sachs. Sachs’ book, The End Of Poverty was a catalyst in Legend’s forming of the Show Me Campaign. American Idol’s Melinda Doolittle presented an award to Peter Chernin, and performed “Amazing Grace” as part of the evening’s entertainment. Ann Veneman, the Executive Director of UNICEF, and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director of the World Bank, presented awards to Ray Chambers and George Soros, respectively.

Millennium Promise is on a mission to end extreme poverty by 2025. They have begun by taking steps to achieve the eight globally-endorsed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa by 2015.

Malaria No More is actively taking steps to end deaths due to malaria, by providing bed nets and raising awareness about this disease, which kills 3,000 children every day.

For more information on how you can get involved, visit the Millennium Promise and Malaria No More websites.

John Legend Hosts Online Auction For The Show Me Campaign

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:40:46 -0000

Written by Regina Walton

Five-time Grammy winner John Legend and Golden State Warrior Stephen Jackson have banded together for an auction to benefit the Show Me Campaign.

The auction, which will take place on eBay, runs from March 10 to March 17, and the winner will receive a VIP package for two which features:

Two lower level tickets to the March 21, 2008 Golden State Warriors vs. Houston Rockets game.
Post-game meet & greet and photo opportunity with John Legend and Stephen Jackson at limited-access VIP reception.
A special Thank You Message on the JumboTron in recognition of the winning bid.
Pre-game behind the scenes and locker-room tour.
Autographed sheet music of John Legend.
Autographed photo of Stephen Jackson.
Two-night stay at the luxurious W Hotel San Francisco.
Round-trip ground transportation from hotel to the game.
Two $500 airline gift cards.

After returning from Ghana in 2007, John felt compelled to launch The Show Me Campaign.

“Seeing what I saw in Ghana and Tanzania and learning that real change for these people is within our collective grasp, I knew I had to do something and I wanted my fans to join me. The aim of the village is to get people onto the ladder of development so they can climb off on their own. It’s a hand up, not a handout,” said the singer.

The mission of Legend’s Show Me Campaign is “…to fight economic and spiritual poverty through fostering sustainable development at the individual, family and small community levels. The Show Me Campaign works closely with Millennium Promise and local community leaders to alleviate poverty (through agriculture, heath, and education supports) in Mbola, a remote Millennium Village in northwest Tanzania—all funds raised will benefit this effort. The funds will be accepted by the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) and distributed directly to The Show Me Campaign.”

A Legendary Evening In The Fight Against Poverty

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:59:30 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

It was a large and enthusiastic crowd that filled the Roone Arledge Auditorium at Columbia University on Monday night, and anticipation crackled through the air like electricity. Over 1,300 students and members of the public packed the building, looking for a good time, an entertaining time, and an informative time.

“I know you all came here to hear me sing, right?” joked Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs as he took to the stage with Grammy Award winning recording artist John Legend.

But they weren’t. They were there to learn how they could change the world.

The event was part of the Poverty Action Tour, an initiative of Legend’s Show Me Campaign, an organization that encourages social, economic, personal, and educational growth. Legend organized the session to challenge people to support the fight against poverty, and promote the charities and groups that champion the cause.

The evening began with a video describing the campaign’s efforts to alleviate poverty around the world, especially with the Tanzanian Millennium Village in Mbola. Sachs and Legend then spoke on the theme of eradicating global poverty.

“Things that were thought to be impossible are going to be proved inevitable in the next few years,” said Sachs.

A 45 minute question and answer session followed, in which members of the audience discussed how they could get involved with the fight against poverty and make a difference. Questions ranged from queries about women’s reproductive health in Africa to holding individual governments accountable for crises in vulnerable countries. Legend described global poverty as the “defining cause of our generation”.

“I don’t want to be standing on the sidelines,” he told the audience. “I don’t want to just show up at a concert once in a while and say something nice – I want to be involved.”

Both Sachs and Legend condemned the U.S. government for providing insufficient aid to poverty-related causes.

“When we’re giving four cents of every $100 of our GNP to that cause, we’re not doing our job,” said Sachs.

He went on to say that the Pentagon spends $1.5 billion for the equivalent of 22 hours of work. He said roughly 3 million bed nets could be purchased with that amount of funding to save children in Africa from diseases such as malaria.

“[I’m trying] to get the Pentagon to take next Thursday off,” he joked.

Legend organized the Poverty Action Tour, which plans to take in several universities around America, after watching Sachs discuss his book, The End Of Poverty, on television.

“When [Hurricane] Katrina hit and there was all this discussion about what America does with our poor and does for our poor, I started thinking more broadly about the issue of poverty,” he told MTV News before the event. “Fortunately, at the time I was thinking about it, I saw Professor Sachs on television talking about his book, and it made me want to get his book right away, and I ordered it on Amazon. I read it while I was traveling, and I was excited by the idea that I could do something. I wanted to be involved. I actually talked about how it was my favorite book I had read recently in an article. And I think Dr. Sachs’ people saw me talking about it and reached out and said we should all get together and see what we could work on together.”

Following a meeting with Sachs, Legend traveled to Ghana to witness the poverty problem firsthand. He established the Show Me Campaign soon afterwards, and has since become involved in a number of initiatives in the fight to alleviate poverty.

“You see all these things that make you feel desperate or sad, but you realize changes can be made, and it doesn’t take a lot of money on our part to make a change in people’s lives.”

Both Sachs and Legend called on attendees to involve themselves with grassroots anti-poverty action.

“Connect with all your friends, connect with the other campuses, and get the message out,” said Sachs. “The time for change has arrived. The time for hope is here. The time for facing up to sustainable development is here.”

The evening concluded with a musical performance from Legend.

Musicians Start The Year With Generosity

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:45:39 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

2008 has only just begun, but already celebrities are straining at the leash to spread generosity among those who need it. And a host of musicians have kicked off the year with donations and events to raise money and awareness for a number of good causes.

Pop group OK Go are set to release a charity EP on iTunes on February 5, with all proceeds going to victims of Hurricane Katrina. The 5-song release, “You’re Not Alone”, will coincide with Mardi Gras 2008, and will benefit New Orleans-based musicians displaced by the 2005 disaster.

“New Orleans is one of the last places in America where music is truly a fundamental part of everyday life,” said OK Go singer Damian Kulash, whose hits include “A Million Ways” and “Here It Goes Again”. “People get together on the weekends and parade through the streets just playing songs; 12-year-old-kids learn funk on the tuba; everyone dances. Life elsewhere in the world simply isn’t as celebratory. If we allow the culture of New Orleans to die by leaving its musicians marooned around the country, America will have lost one of its great treasures.”

iTunes has agreed to waive all proceeds from EP sales, and digital distribution powerhouse IODA will promote it free of charge. In addition, free freight shipping is to be provided by EFM Worldwide/Horizon Cargo, and Music Travel Management has contributed free airfare for the band to play two benefit shows – January 11 at Tipianas, New Orleans, and February 2 at The 9:30 Club in Washington DC.

Rockers Switchfoot have also been on the charity trail recently, and have raised over $100,000 for Habitat For Humanity. The band donated $1 from every ticket sold during their Appetite For Construction tour to the organization, and also spent time working alongside volunteers for the charity during some of their stopovers.

Country singer and Grammy nominee Taylor Swift is another celebrity to show her generous side recently, when she donated the pink Chevy pick-up truck given to her by her record label to children’s charity, the Victory Junction Gang.

“[The organization] has camps all over the country for children who are sick,” said the 18-year-old singer. “For one week they can forget they’re sick and just have a blast and hang out with other people they can relate to. They look forward to it, and I love that cause.”

The Victory Junction Gang will use the truck to pick up children from the airport and give them a fun ride to the camp.

Swift will also perform at Nashville’s Sound and Speed event, the NASCAR and country music celebration to be held on January 11 and 12 to benefit the Victory Junction Gang. She will officially hand the keys of the truck over to NASCAR driver and organization founder Kyle Petty during the event. More information can be found at www.victoryjunction.org.

Singer and founder of the Show Me Campaign, John Legend, will join Earth Institute director Jeffrey Sachs for an evening of information, discussion, and music at Columbia University on January 28, as part of the Show Me Poverty Action Tour. The evening hopes to stimulate people to actively work to overcome global poverty, and more information can be found at the University website.

Pop group the Barenaked Ladies are to play at the North American Auto Show’s annual black-tie charity gala at Cobo Arena, Detroit, on January 18. The $400 ticket price will benefit a host of local children’s charities, including Barat Child and Family Services, the Boys & Girls Club of Southeastern Michigan, Boys Hope-Girls Hope of Detroit, The Children’s Center, and the Detroit Institute for Children. Proceeds will go towards goods, clothing, and health and support services for needy children. Tickets and information can be found at www.naias.com.

And finally, February 25 will see a charity concert commemorating the 5th anniversary of the Station Nightclub tragedy in Rhode Island, the fourth largest nightclub fire in US history.

The concert will be held at the Dunkin Donut Center in Providence, Rhode Island, and will feature Twisted Sister, Tesla, Stryper, as well as members of Staind, Boston, and Chicago.

The show has been organized by the Wake Up To Love Foundation, founded by Tesla drummer Troy Luccketta, and proceeds will go to the Station Family Fund, an organization set up by the community to assist victims of the fire. 100 people were killed in the blaze, with another 200 seriously injured, and 65 children lost either one or both parents. Survivors still struggle for compensation and support, and many are unable to meet their monthly needs.

Tickets for the show are available at www.ticketmaster.com.

John Legend says ‘Show Me’

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:55:28 -0000

Written by Elizabeth Willoughby

R&B singer John Legend’s song “Show Me,” presented some heavy questions to God about life, death and suffering. Then, after reading Jeffrey Sachs’ book The End of Poverty, Legend extended those questions to his fellow man, and to himself.

The book made him realize how possible it could be to set impoverished villages into an uphill spiral of self sufficiency and progress, so Legend created his own Show Me Campaign to raise the required funds, and partnered with Sachs’ Millennium Promise to serve needy African villages.

Rather than doling out money to destitute villages though, the organizations are doing practical things like providing mosquito nets to curb the millions of avoidable deaths from malaria, free meals to children attending school which raises attendance rates and health, safe water points, local clinics and fertilizer to improve crop production and eradicate food shortages.

In this way, money is traceable and the results are tangible and obvious. Legend says, “The aim is to get people onto the ladder of development so that they can climb off on their own. It’s a hand up, not hand out.”

He says if 80,000 people donated $20 each, the cost of going out to a couple of movies, a village of 5000 could be supported for five years and rendered self-sustaining thereafter. “Some people will say with some justification that we have a lot of problems here at home that we still need to solve. But I don’t believe you have to choose. I think every life is valuable and poverty anywhere is something we should address.”

His spring “Show Me Tour” will be in support of this cause.

Look To The Stars News: Show Me Campaign

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