Toronto’s Planet in Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival, now in its 11^th year, runs October 13 to 17 and will screen 90 feature films, documentaries and short films from Canada and around the world.

The full line up will be announced on Sept. 22 and tickets go on sale the following day. The theme for this year is “Life on Earth,” in keeping with the United Nations’ declaration that 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity.

Opening the festival will be the Toronto Premiere Gala Presentation of Ron Mann’s documentary, In the Wake of the Flood (Sphinx Productions).  The film follows acclaimed Canadian author Margaret Atwood on her world book tour for her novel, The Year of the Flood.

Who hasn’t seen the Cashmere bathroom tissue television ad, in which a woman parades down the runway wearing a dress made out of toilet paper? Well, it’s not just the magic of television. The 7th Annual White Cashmere Collection takes place September 22 at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and raises money for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

The collection, themed Fashion With Compassion, features 15 established and emerging Canadian fashion designers and their “BT Couture” crafted in 100 per cent Cashmere bathroom tissue. In October the Canadian company will also bring back the limited-edition Pink Cashmere, with 25 cents from the sale of each package going to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

The White Cashmere Collection is the world’s first and only bathroom tissue couture collection and debuted in 2004 as a showcase for the brilliance of Canada’s fashion designers and their creations in cashmere fabric. The international award-winning collection progressed to Cashmere bathroom tissue as its “fabric,” after the first two years.  In 2008, the collection evolved into Fashion With Compassion and highlighted Pink Cashmere, Canada’s first coloured bathroom tissue in a decade.

By Steve McLean

Members of Broken Social Scene, Great Big Sea and Bedouin Soundclash are among the musicians teaming up against members of the media for a charity soccer match at Toronto’s BMO Field June 20 as part of the North By Northeast Music, Film and Interactive Festival. Dubbed “Put The Boot In,” proceeds go to Right To Play, which uses sport and play programs to help children in 23 countries affected by war, poverty and disease.

NXNE’s sister event (South By Southwest in Austin, Texas) has an annual Sunday softball game and the Juno Awards stage the Juno Cup hockey game every year, so NXNE managing director Andy McLean thought that his fest needed a sporting event, too. The first grudge match pitting The Rockers (musicians) against The World (media members and others) was held in 2007, and the outcomes have been two wins for The Rockers and one draw.

“The emergence of BMO Field and Toronto FC has shown there’s huge soccer support in the city, and my previous employment as a soccer hooligan in Manchester brought everything together to head in this direction,” says the British-born McLean, mostly joking about that last part. “Having the game at BMO Field adds a lot of cachet to it.”

Players are asked to donate at least $100 to take part in the game, and they’re given a URL to help them if they want to raise outside funds. They receive a kit from sporting goods manufacturer Umbro, one of the game’s corporate sponsors, in return. Previous games have raised $2,000 to $3,000 each for Right To Play.

By Steve McLean

Jewel Kilcher’s 1995 album, Pieces Of You, is one of the most successful debuts of all time — selling 12 million copies in the U.S. alone. She was just 21. Only three years earlier, while homeless for a year, she became ill and struggled to buy the two gallons of purified water she needed for her ailing kidneys. So in 1999, a career in music well on its way, she co-founded Project Clean Water, then called The ClearWater Project.

“If we’re in the States and we can’t drink our tap water, what’s it like in a Third World country where you can’t even buy bottled water?” Jewel told Samaritanmag, during an interview to promote her new country album, Sweet and Mild, out June 8. “I thought that if I ever got in a position to help, I would look into it.

“So when my life did turn around, one of the first things I did before I even made a lot of money was to set up the charity. It’s been a great experience and it’s a great charity to have because it doesn’t take a lot of money to make a difference. Cancer research takes millions and millions of dollars. This was something that I felt I could do on my own.”

Project Clean Water targets villages around the world with a lack of clean water and works with them to find sustainable solutions to their problems. The non-profit foundation has so far helped more than 30 communities in 13 countries on five continents.

By Steve McLean

Crash Karma drummer Jeff Burrows will get a major workout behind his kit next week when he stages his fourth annual drum-a-thon  to raise money for a Windsor, Ontario organization called Transition To Betterness.

T2B, as it is known to many in the southern Ontario community, refurbishes hospital rooms so they’re more comfortable for cancer patients and their family members and friends who visit them.

“There’s always a need for cancer research and so on, but this is something that is done right in front of your face,” Burrows tells Samaritanmag. “It receives no government funding, but it’s a very good grassroots organization.”

In addition to being a drummer, Burrows is also the mid-day host at Blackburn Radio Inc. stations CKUE 95.1 and 100.7 The Rock. He does double duty on the sales side for the drum-a-thon, as companies can purchase an hour-long sponsorship block of the event from him in exchange for radio advertising time.

By Steve McLean

The Purina Animal Hall of Fame added three dogs and a cat to its membership during an induction ceremony at Toronto’s PawsWay Pet Discovery Centre on Monday.

Nestle Purina PetCare is behind recognizing heroic animals (http://www.samaritanmag.com/features/pet-heroes), and this year’s class of inductees brings the Hall of Fame’s total to 120 dogs, 25 cats and one horse over 42 years.

“This year’s inductees have shown us that a hero is a hero no matter how big or small,” said Purina PetCare Legacy executive director Mary Siemiesz from the stage. “All that matters is the size of their hearts. They remind us why we adopt, rescue and welcome pets into our lives, and why it is so essential that they are responsibly cared for and cherished.”

If you know of a pet whose actions may be worthy of recognition, you can find out more information and nominate an animal at www.purina.ca/about/halloffame.