Inspired by a “kooky” head-painting idea to make her best friend feel better after she was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, Canadian 90210 actress Shenae Grimes has now started her own charity, Project Lemonade.

“I’m hoping to team up with a hospital in LA to have this — I don’t know what I want to call it exactly — it’s kind of like a creative endeavour of arts and crafts for the soul, involving kids who are going through the treatment process with a little light in their midst,” Grimes told Samaritanmag. “So hopefully it will take off and we can reach out to different hospitals and keep going.”

Project Lemonade won’t be all about head and body art — although, if the kids are into it, Grimes knows it will be fun for them. It will offer all kinds of arts and crafts, but that’s how the idea started.

By STEVE McLEAN 

Rwanda: Rises Up! is a documentary that will premiere on Citytv stations across Canada at 8 p.m. on June 19 and a Sony Music downloadable album that will go on sale via iTunes three days later to raise awareness of recent developments in a country where an estimated 800,000 people lost their lives in 1994’s genocide.

The documentary, directed by Derek Horn, followed Canadian music artists Sarah Slean, Damhnait Doyle, Steve Bays (Hot Hot Heat) and Tim Edwards (Crash Parallel) as they interacted with Rwandans during a visit to the impoverished African nation last November on behalf of Song For Africa. You can read more about it in a Samaritanmag.com article found at http://samaritanmag.com/features/rwanda-rising-up-album-and-doc-features-hot-hot-heat-billy-talent-operation-md-and-more.

In addition to the aforementioned Canadian artists who went to Rwanda, Billy Talent’s Ian D’Sa, The Trews’ John-Angus MacDonald, Operation MD (featuring Sum 41’s Cone McCaslin and H20’s Todd Morse), Grand Analog, Classified, Mike Boyd, Luke McMaster, Sharon Riley And The Faith Chorale, Rafiki, K8, Miss Jojo, White Mic, Itorero, Noble Blood and Queen Gaga And The Heaveners are among the artists who contributed to the album to boost spirits and prospects in Rwanda.

By Andrew Robertson

Sylvia Allen has taken her expertise in sponsorship and public relations as head of New Jersey’s Allen Consulting to spearhead Sylvia’s Children Inc., a non-profit created to help the children of Masaka, Uganda, using a unique twist on education. When she reaches her ultimate goal, she will then apply the same model to other places.

Allen, like many, believes that education is the core of creating a self-sustaining community that can rise above poverty and, through her organization, she has implemented enterprising initiatives at the Mbiriizi Advanced Primary and Day Care School.

Sylvia’s Children has built a new boys dorm; a well for clean water; three double classrooms; a new library; a playground; a building for corn milling; and supplied beds, blankets, stoves, cooking pots, desks, shoes, socks, books, and other items. It has also hired a school nurse and purchased eight acres of land adjacent to the school.

“We now have more teachers, improved cooking conditions, and seven of those acres planted with corn,” Sylvia says. “We have enough room on that land to start a chicken farm and we’re going to start five businesses so that maximum by 2012 they won’t need me. I’m making it so they’re totally self-reliant.”

By Karen Bliss

When the Choose Your Charity angle of Sarah McLachlan’s resurrected Lilith Fair Tour was announced late March, some bloggers were ready to pounce. A few had discovered pro-life organizations in the list of non-profits, which could potentially receive funds from this all-female music festival.

Via the Lilith Facebook page (www.facebook.com/lilithfairtour), the public was able to vote on the pre-selected local women’s charities in their cities until May 3.  The top five charities from each city moved on to second round of voting on May 4, which ends at 11:59 p.m. (pacific standard time) on May 31.

Of course, the job of vetting all the charities is enormous, even for one charity, let alone hundreds. Over the year, there have always been stories uncovered through media or criminal investigation about misappropriated funds or other scams. Then, there are simply personal beliefs (ie. anti-abortion, missionaries) that could be a deciding factor in supporting a charity.

By Steve McLean

Delta Hotels and Resorts has been supporting charities for years, but it has just launched its Good Neighbour Challenge to help worthy causes on a more localized level. The 2010 goal is to raise one million dollars to support charitable partners across Canada and donate 10,000 volunteer hours to help build stronger communities.

“What we got from surveying our employee base across the country was that they wanted to do things locally,” says Ken Lambert, Delta’s sales and marketing VP. “It was great for the corporate office to have a major national charity, but at the end of the day there was strong support within our hotels from people who wanted to work with local groups — whether it was a food bank, a hospital or other things in the community.”

The Good Neighbours Challenge focuses on four main areas: improving access to affordable housing; protecting the environment; supporting neighbourhood causes; and volunteering.

The program (www.deltahotels.com/goodneighbours) kicked off on April 20 with a breakfast, food drive and neighbourhood clean-up in Toronto’s Upper Beach area that involved Delta CEO Hank Stackhouse, local hotel employees, television host Ben Mulroney and members of the community.

By Karen Bliss

There’s an emotional moment near the end of the documentary The Story Of Furious Pete where competitive eater Peter Czerwinski wolfs down an estimated 10 lbs of ribs, hugs his mother and tearfully tells her, “All for you, mom, all for you.”

That might seem like a strange action to dedicate to your mother, but it was a stunt to raise money for the MS Society of Canada in her honour. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the central nervous system, eight years ago.

“I see my mother every day and to see her suffering with it, I’m an only child and she’s pretty much my best friend, and anything I can do to help her out and support the cause in any way, I’ll do,” Czerwinski tells Samaritanmag.

In The Story Of Furious Pete, which screens at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival (April 29 to May 9; check www.hotdocs.ca for dates/times), director George Tsioutsioulas captures his unique story from anorexic teen to champion competitive eater. In the film, Czerwinski, now 24, explains at a meeting with the Mississauga, Ontario, chapter of the MS Society, “My mom’s always been there for me. She helped me get through my illness. I want to help her.”