GOODS

BY JIM SLOTEK, www.samaritanmag.com

A former member of the Black Power movement, and an usher at the funeral of the slain Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., actor Samuel L. Jackson has long been involved with Los Angeles-based Artists For A New South Africa (ANSA), a non-profit organization whose original mission was to end the white apartheid regime, but now tackles AIDS/HIV and various medical and rights issues in Africa and the U.S., particularly for children.

"We have AIDS initiatives and we dig wells for kids and families who have to travel long distances to get water and we build schools," Jackson tells Samaritanmag.

The 63-year-old Avengers star has made several trips to Africa to inspect ANSA's work and challenges. On his most recent trip to South Africa last August, he discovered, "a village with basically no adults, because of AIDS, a situation where food and caregivers have to be brought in."

According to ANSA's web site, Artists for a New South Africa works in the U.S. and South Africa "to combat HIV/AIDS, assist children orphaned by the disease, advance human and civil rights, educate and empower youth, and build bonds between our nations through arts, culture, and our shared pursuit of social justice."

ANSA's key accomplishments include raising more than $9 million for effective African nonprofits; the shipment of more than 70 tons of medical supplies and books to impoverished communities; and, since 2005, providing ongoing comprehensive care and services to more than 3,500 AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in South Africa, and is working on scaling up efforts to reach more of the country's three million orphans.

BY KAREN BLISS, www.samaritanmag.com

Guitarist-singer Brian "Head" Welch, who now fronts Love And Death, co-founded Californian nu metal band Korn in 1993, but the hard partying lifestyle left him addicted to methamphetamine and other drugs and alcohol. After getting clean and sober, he quit the multi-platinum-selling band in 2005, saying he wanted to devote his life to Christianity.

That did not mean giving up music, however, just conducting himself differently, which included wanting to give unto others.

Welch got a little carried away at first. One thing he contemplated was building skate parks for disadvantaged kids.

"Yeah, I was just off of drugs. I had entered this new life and I wanted to do everything," Welch tells Samaritanmag. "I wanted to be this saviour of the world. I would love to be involved in that, but I don't think it's on my radar of things to do."

One of the first charitable ventures he undertook was with Good News India, a Christian missionary organization which helps communities in Northern India by distributing food and clothing to the impoverished, furthering education, sponsoring orphaned or destitute children, and providing relief to people in the leper colonies. GNI does all this while heavily promoting evangelism and distributing bibles...

BY JIM SLOTEK, www.samaritanmag.com

It's a long way from Vancouver to Uganda, but Canadian-born action star Taylor Kitsch (John Carter, Battleship) has embraced Africa to the extent that he reportedly has "hakuna majuto" -- Swahili for "no regrets" -- tattooed on his ribcage.

A longtime fundraiser for the African Children's Choir, Kitsch's love affair with the continent reaches new heights this year with his filmmaking debut, a fundraising documentary about the Children's Choir -- and its associated charity Music For Life -- that took him to slums and trouble spots in Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and South Africa last year.

"It's my number one charity, so it was a natural project," Kitsch tells Samaritanmag.com, during an interview for the film John Carter in Carefree, Arizona. "I produced, shot and edited everything."

Portions of his African video diary are viewable on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz14m-tVMxI ">YouTube.

Founded in 1984, the African Children's Choir is an international initiative that takes children from ages 7-12, "feeds them, houses them and directs them in choirs that travel the world to raise awareness and money for their villages back home."

BY KIM HUGHES, www.samaritanmag.com

When Mother Nature bestows something rare and wonderful, it's best to use it as a source of goodwill and charity. That's the thinking shared by the human caregivers behind Giant George, the aptly named Great Dane and two-time Guinness World Records Holder fast-tracked to join Marley, Lassie, Rin Tin Tin and others in the annals of doggy fame.

At a recorded height of 43 inches -- or nearly four-foot tall -- the six-year-old, Tucson, Arizona-based George is certified as both the World's Tallest Living Dog and World's Tallest Dog Ever. Swell, but what exactly does one do with a doe-eyed, 245-pound mutt, apart from shovel massive amounts of kibble into his maw month over month?

You leverage his celebrity for fundraising efforts. "We started this company for fun but when we started to make money from it, it was clear to us that the thing to do was to give back," says Team Giant George spokesperson Paul O'Rourke, one of three individuals -- including owner Dave Nasser -- who manages the dog and the brand, a feat made possible by the Guinness certification.

O'Rourke tells Samaritanmag.com by phone from Tucson: "We felt like we had one of God's creatures and we didn't want to take advantage of it. But if there was money to be made, we were going to share that with different causes."

Team Giant George's altruistic efforts are many and varied. For example, after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year, the group made a "sizeable" donation to Animal Refuge Kansai which offered relief to animals on the ground.

BY KERRY DOOLE, www.samaritanmag.com

Veteran Canadian actor William Shatner remains best known as Captain James Kirk from the famed TV series Star Trek. As Kirk, Shatner piloted the starship Enterprise through the galaxies, but here on terra firma he rides high on the saddle of his horses, which he has long put to charitable use. 

Shatner -- who, at age 80, still competes in reining and saddlebred shows throughout the year -- is a major supporter of Central Kentucky Ride For Hope (CKRH), an organization "dedicated to enriching the community by improving the quality of life and the health of children and adults with special physical, cognitive, emotional and social needs through therapeutic activities with the horse," it states on its web site.

This is one of the charities that benefits from The Hollywood Charity Horse Show, an annual event run by Shatner. Back in the late 1980s, Shatner attended a charity horse show in Los Angeles, and, upon learning it was set to cease operations, he took it over, renaming it The Hollywood Charity Horse Show. He selected a therapeutic riding program called Ahead With Horses as the first recipient, later adding other charities.

The event is jointly sponsored by priceline.com (Shatner has long been their very visible pitchman) and Wells Fargo bank.

"The Hollywood Charity Horse Show is a conduit to many other children's charities," Shatner tells samaritanmag.com. "We are now amplifying the object of the charity to include returning veterans. They have many of the same psychological and physical ills as the children who are receiving funds from us. Many of our charities are called riding therapeutic programs. They have done miracles for children, and we are in the process of doing miracles for returning veterans from the wars. That is now a very important aspect."

BY KIM HUGHES, www.samaritanmag.com

Few cat-assist programs produce more immediate and tangible results than the Toronto Humane Society’s winter shelter-building workshops which transform everyday materials – Rubbermaid storage bins, Styrofoam insulation, some tape and straw – into life-sustaining makeshift homes for street cats in winter.

Run as part of its Feral Cat Program – which in turn is part of a larger volunteer base including other members of the Toronto Feral Cat Trap/Neuter/Release Coalition – the Humane Society’s overwintering shelter program ensures helpless cats don’t end up as corpses when temperatures plummet to below-freezing lows.

The web site lists all the dates for upcoming workshops (from Feb. through April), plus instructions to build your own Rubbermaid-type shelter at home or to request a shelter. There have been 17 workshops to date and more than 310 shelters have been built.

Feral cats are defined as cats that are not owned and not socialized to be candidates for adoption. Stray cats were previously owned, and may be candidates for adoption. Both end up on the street.

Indeed, were it not for the selfless efforts of concerned citizens and animal care professionals citywide, Toronto’s current homeless cat crisis would be a flat-out disaster.

“We build these shelters primarily – almost exclusively – for what we call colony caretakers, people who feed a colony of feral cats in their neighbourhood,” says Bill Howes...

BY KAREN BLISS, www.samaritanmag.com

Poised to set the world on fire, the members of New York City pop band Fun., whose sophomore album, Some Nights, drops Feb. 21, have already decided what they stand for: equality  — and will take that message to their fans and the media as they continue to rise in popularity.

 “We’re pretty serious on gay rights,” guitarist Jack Antonoff told samaritanmag.com recently, while in Toronto with his bandmates, Nate Ruess and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Dost, to promote their new album.

“That’s our thing because we’re all straight and we get asked all the time if we’re gay, which is really offensive in itself, the assumption that you have to be gay to care.

“That also shows you where we’re at — that people assume that it isn’t a straight problem, but it’s no different than any other human rights issue and until we all care, then we’re letting [discrimination] happen.”

For their part, the three members of Fun. have aligned themselves with Montreal-based Revel & Riot, whose objective is to promote lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, trans-gendered, and queer and/or questioning (LGBTQ) rights, awareness and equality through new media, graphics, writing, and products on the internet.

BY KIM HUGHES, www.samaritanmag.com

Oscar Wilde famously (and somewhat sagely) opined that youth is wasted on the young, but he might have retracted had he met any one of the 100 or so exceptional, altruistic kids unearthed by the Build-A-Bear Workshop’s Huggable Heroes program.

Running annually since 2004, the unique interactive retailer’s event seeks to recognize kids aged eight to 18 who have “made a commitment to serve, help others, and make a difference in their community,” usually by spearheading a project or website that, for instance, collects food donations to feed animals in shelters, supports adult literacy programs or the environment or assists senior citizens.

Take-charge kids from across North America and Puerto Rico (where Build-A-Bear Workshops have a bricks-and-mortar presence) are nominated for their good deeds, often by teachers or parents. Shortlists are created by an independent judging organization, which bases its decision on criteria including impact of the accomplishments (75 percent of total score) and inspiration to others relating to the cause (25 percent of total score). The kids must also submit a story about themselves...