Celebrities and charities

(A) Many celebrities are involved in a wide variety of charity organizations, but they often choose one area to become particularly active in. With superstar actor Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic), the environment has become the cause he feels particularly passionate about. Not only is he active in a variety of environmental protection organizations, he also founded his own: The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which focuses on fighting global warming. And it is the same with DiCaprio’s support of solar power: Suddenly, installing solar panels to one’s home as DiCaprio did with his own no longer seemed so unrealistic. (B) Her 18 number-one hits on Billboard’s famous ‘Hot 100’ pop chart is a record for a solo artist unlikely to be broken any time soon. And indeed, Mariah Carey (‘Hero’), as one of the most successful singers in pop music, is regularly asked to take part in the world’s big music events for charity, such as benefit concerts or Bob Geldof’s Live. Her background is a major reason she became involved in different charities which focus on helping underprivileged children. Carey once donated $1 million to a single charity, The Fresh Air Fund. (C) Sir Elton John, British singer, songwriter and pianist has been a best-selling artist and superstar for over 40 years. He has also been closely associated with charity work since the mid- 1980s, and is best known for his work in the fight against AIDS. Elton John has raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the years for AIDS research. He even founded a charity of his own in 1992: The Elton John AIDS Foundation. This foundation is active on a variety of fronts: It raises money for HIV/AIDS prevention programmes; it helps people living with HIV/AIDS in various ways. (D) Singer, songwriter, actress and all-around multi-talent Beyoncé Knowles grew up in Houston, Texas. When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana in 2005 and made tens of thousand of people homeless, Beyoncé decided she wanted to help. So together with friend and Destiny’s Child co-member Kelly Rowland she founded The Survivor Foundation, which was able to raise money to provide many of the Katrina homeless with temporary housing.