Steffani was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer found in lymph tissue, in 2007 at the age of fourteen. While going through treatment, Steffani was referred to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central & South Texas. The Foundation grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. When asked what would be the one thing she would wish for if she could have anything, Steffani replied, “I wish to be an actress.”
The Make-A-Wish staff went to work to create a magical experience for Steffani. In the spring of 2008, her dream came true when she was given the opportunity to visit the set ofThe Tree of Life, a movie being filmed in Austin. Her mother, Tamara, said it couldn’t have come at a better time as she had finished her treatments just six weeks prior.
FYI. Webmiss was away for a couple days to visit Krakow, Poland. I’m home now. A big thanks to my lovely friend and SB staffmember La_miga for keeping SimplyBrad.com updated!
Through their foundation, Springfield native Brad Pitt and partner Angelina Jolie on Friday contributed $500,000 to the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, to bolster the recovery effort in Joplin.
“Rebuilding after a disaster is a long process,” said Brian Fogle, President of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. “As our neighbors in Joplin begin to deal with the devastation, this donation from the Jolie-Pitt Foundation gives them the hope and confidence they will need to rebuild their lives, homes and community.”
The money will be used to support mid- and long-term rebuilding efforts in the storm-ravaged city.
Brad Pitt’s brother, Doug Pitt, is climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in an effort to bring safe drinking water to African communities. Philanthropy apparently runs in the family. Doug Pitt – a photojournalist, father of three and Brad Pitt”s brother – is on Day 4 of a climb up Africa’s highest peak, Mt. Kilimanjaro. It’s part of an effort to bring clean, safe drinking water to African communities.
Pitt blogged on Sunday: “After an early wake-up call of 5:45 a.m. the team walked more than nine miles reaching an elevation of 14,800-feet for lunch. The pace has slowed to make sure that everyone’s bodies adjust to the new altitudes, but spirits are still high despite cold temperatures and frequent rain.”
Generous Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have donated $2 million to the African wildlife sanctuary where they spent Christmas with their kids.
The superstar couple’s Jolie-Pitt Foundation has made the donation to the Naankuse Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia to help its efforts to protect animals and improve the lives of local people.
The couple, whose daughter Shiloh was born in Namibia, are close friends of the directors and founders of Naankuse, Rudie and Marlice van Vuuren.
The donation to the Naankuse Mission project is being made in Shiloh’s name.
Angelina said: ‘We want her to be very involved and grow up with the understanding of her country of birth. “We have known Rudie and Marlice for many years and continue to be impressed by their hard work and dedication to the people and conservation of the land and wildlife of Namibia.”
Brad and Angelina and their six children spent a week at the sanctuary over the festive period.
On Wednesday, just days after celebrating the holidays in Namibia, Africa, the couple made an impromptu stop at the St. John’s Jane Pitt Pediatric Cancer Center in Springfield, Mo., the town where Pitt grew up.
“They called a little bit ahead, about an hour ahead, and requested to tour the pediatric center,” hospital spokesperson Cora Scott said Thursday. “They stayed about 45 minutes. It was a very nice visit.”
Last year, Pitt and Jolie, along with Pitt’s brother and sister and their families, donated $1 million to St. John’s Foundation for Community Health and dedicated the pediatric cancer center to Pitt’s mother, Jane.
“Jane Pitt is a gem in our community,” Scott said. “She’s a very wonderful woman who cares so very much about the well being of children.”
The Jolie-Pitt Foundation today announced a donation of $150,000 to SOS Children’s Villages – USA. The donation is given in recognition of National Adoption Day, which celebrates adoptive families and highlights the needs of the over 100,000 children still waiting for adoptive families in the United States. SOS Children’s Villages play a vital role in the healing and stabilization of foster care children, and constitute a critical step along the way to family reunification or adoption for many children. SOS Children’s Villages provides loving, stable homes to children around the world whose biological families cannot properly care for them. Founded over 60 years ago, SOS operates over 500 Villages in 130 countries including Illinois and Florida in the US. The Jolie-Pitt Foundation donation will provide the supplemental long-term financial support needed for a family of four foster children in an SOS Village in the US.
Angelina Jolie is in Pakistan, where she has met with the Prime Minister in her role as UNHCR ambassador. On Wednesday she spoke with CNN’s Sanjay Gupta via satellite about the flood victims and how she deals with the tragedy she sees.
“I’ll talk to my family,” she said. “I talk to Brad; he wants to know as much as he can about these issues and every trip. He’s been here as well, he came with me after the earthquake. But I don’t know, I don’t have a lot of friends I talk to. He is really the only person I talk to.”
Waiting in a parked car in the Ninth Ward as the rain pounds down, I cannot help but think about the flood in the movie, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
It’s a natural, because I am only a stone’s throw from where the levee broke, and I am here to meet the star of that movie, Brad Pitt, as the finale to our “Building Up America” tour.
The actor targeted this area some years ago with his Make It Right Foundation — an ambitious plan to build up the shattered neighborhood with new, ecologically friendly, affordable houses, and then fill them with residents who had been driven out by Katrina.
When the rain backs off a bit, I hustle into one of the raised houses, where my TV crew is busy setting up lights on a covered upper deck. NBC is also there, but in a different area. I spend a few minutes chatting with Brian Williams. We’ve known each other for years and share a lot of friends, and it’s always nice catching up.
This Sunday: A special edition of “Meet the Press” live from New Orleans. Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated this historical city and the surrounding region, we take an in-depth look at where things now stand. What progress has been made in rebuilding communities, schools, and businesses? Why was the recovery so long and painful? What lessons did we learn from the government’s botched response? And did those lessons help in dealing with the Oil Spill disaster this summer? Guest moderator Brian Williams speaks with two of the area’s notable political leaders: Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.
Next, we’ll have an exclusive interview with actor Brad Pitt, Founder of the Make It Right Foundation – an organization that aims to build 150 green, affordable, high-quality design homes in the neighborhood closest to the levee breach, the Lower 9th Ward.
