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Holly Robinson Peete
The HollyRod Foundation was started by Holly and her
husband Rodney,
and helps patients with Parkinson's Disease receive
emotional, financial,
and medical assistance. Holly's personal experience
with PD began while
watching her father struggle with the disease and
seeing other patients who
were not as financially capable of getting the most
beneficial treatment or
who were alone without the support of family. To
learn more visit
www.hollyrod.com
Catherine
Curry-Williams and Tiffany Harris
Shane's Inspiration began when Catherine
Curry-Williams and her husband Scott
Williams lost their son after 2 weeks to Spinal
Muscular Atrophy (Type I:
Werdnig-Hoffman Disease) a genetic disorder
affecting one in ten thousand
children. If Shane had survived he would have been
in a wheelchair for the
rest of his life. Knowing this, Catherine, Scott,
and family friend Tiffany
Harris, seized an opportunity to build Universally
Accessible Playgrounds,
so that all children would be able to play together.
Since building the
first playground in 1998, they have raised millions
to develop over 40
playgrounds. If you have ever been to one of their
parks you know how
amazing they are...and if you haven't please take
the time, your children
will love it!
www.shanesinspiration.org
Frances Abbott
Fran is a 49-year old mom of seven children, 3
biological and four adopted. Although
the adopted children all have special needs,
including: autism,
developmental delays, cerebral palsy, two with
seizures and one on oxygen,
she fits time into her busy schedule to "preach what
she practices". Fran
has published her first book promoting adoptions in
our country and is
considered a formidable advocate for the U.S. Foster
Care System. She was
featured on Fox 11's Freddie Mac Segment and has
spoken in local schools and
universities in order to promote fostering and
adoption of the hundreds of
thousands of children we have languishing in our
foster care system. "Not
too many people realize that we are now building
orphanages here in our own
country. We need as many people as possible to
recognize and assist with the
plight of America's abandoned youth, our Nation's
most valuable assets."
Fran has plenty of insights and solutions, and will
be including them in her
upcoming book: Stolen Youth: The Plight of Orphans
in America Today.
www.abrighterlifeforchildren.com
Rebekah Del Rio
When Rebekah found out her 19-year-old son was
diagnosed with Stage IV Malignant Fibrous
Histiocytoma, a rare form of soft tissue sarcoma,
she set up this fund for
him. She is hoping to raise enough money for Phillip
to receive the cutting-edge treatments he needs. To
make a donation or for more information please visit
www.thephillipdemarscancerfund.com
Cindy Margolis
After struggling with "unexplained infertility"
Cindy and her husband
decided to give IVF- In Vitro Fertilization a
try...and it worked. She is
now blessed with her son Nicholas as well as two
daughters, Sierra and
Sabrina, from a surrogate mother. Passionate about
raising awareness and
educating people as to what their options are, Cindy
became the Spokeswoman
for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association.
www.resolve.org
Jann Carl
The host of Entertainment Tonight was asked to be a
co-host of the
National Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Labor
Day Telethon in 1996,
and has now been involved with MDA for 17 years. In
that 17 years she has
been a National Vice President, was honored in 1998
with the Paragon Award,
and currently she is a National Board Member.
www.mdausa.org
Parry Aftab
Parry is the Executive Director of the world's
largest online safety and
help group as well as an Internet Privacy and
security lawyer. Parry
dedicates more than 90% of her time to keeping
cyberspace safe especially
for children and is a worldwide leader in online
safety. She has also
written books on the topics and is a world
recognized speaker. Being a free
speech advocate she, "seeks to empower parents, not
the
censors."
www.wiredsafety.org
Sharon Stone
Sharon and her sister Kelly created Planet Hope in
1992, due to an accident that left Kelly physically
impaired for years. Inspired by the accident, "the
sisters recognized the importance of having Hope in
one's life." Their mission is to give hope to
homeless and abused children and their families by
providing medical &
dental care, new clothes for children, counseling
and makeovers for homeless
women and women of domestic abuse. And that's just
the tip of the iceberg!
They also do family outings, have summer camp for
mother's & daughters, give
gifts at the holidays and have recently teamed up
with Habitat for Humanity
to help rebuild homes and buildings in New Orleans.
www.planethope.org
Melinda Gates
Melinda and Bill Gates, "believe every life has
equal value." Through their Bill & Melinda Gates
foundation they give back in four areas; Global
Libraries which provides free Internet access at
public libraries in the U.S. as well as other
countries, Global Health which works to close the
gap between rich and poor countries, the Pacific
Northwest program assists vulnerable children &
families in Washington State and the
Greater Portland, Oregon area, and their Education
program in the U.S. is to
ensure all high school graduates are properly
prepared for college, work and
citizenship.
www.gatesfoundation.org
Kelly Preston
Over the past few years, Kelly has become a
prominent activist for parents and children's
rights. She was instrumental in promoting a federal
law, which sought to
prohibit schools from coercing or pressuring parents
to administer dangerous
and deadly psychiatric drugs to their children as a
requisite for their
education. The Mandatory Medication Act was passed
in December 2004. Kelly
urges parents to know their rights, and get fully
informed on this topic by
logging onto
www.fightforkids.org
Kelly has also been
raising money to build a Narcanon rehabilitation
center in Honolulu to deal with her home state of
Hawaii's crystal methamphetamine problem. Abuse of
"ice" the smoke-able form of the drug could easily
be classified as an epidemic in the state. Visit
www.narcanon.org
for more information.
Jamie Gertz
Jamie Gertz is one of the foundersof The Painted
Turtle, a camp for children with life-threatening
illnesses.Their mission is to provide a unique and
life changing experience for the children and their
families, while providing medical needs. It is a
camp that allows the children to be and feel
independent, something that in daily life they may
not be able to experience. To learn more visit
www.thepaintedturtle.org
Niki Taylor
Niki Taylor started the Begin Foundation after
creating her fragrance begin by Niki Taylor. She
realizedthat being in a position of financial
freedom gave her access to the best professionals to
help her develop the fragrance and her business.
Through
her experience she decided to start the foundation
so that women who might
not otherwise, would have access to the same level
of professionalism. The
women are chosen through a yearly contest by
submitting their bio and an
executive summary of their business plan.
For more info
www.nikitaylor.com
Jane Kaczmarek
Jane and her husband Bradley Whitford are the
founders of Clothes Off Our Back, which holds
charity auctions of the latest celebrity attire. The
clothes are auctioned to the public and the proceeds
go to three children's charities. For more info and
to browse the celebrities who have donated and see
what is currently being auctioned visit
www.clothesoffourback.org
If you know of a Hot Mom that is Making a Difference
please email
karma@hmcmagazine.net |
