Get inspired! women doıng good
women doıng good
women doıng good
women doıng good
Right when we need them most, the winners of self’s Women Doing Good awards are making our world better every day. See why self’s editors tapped stars Beyoncé and Minka Kelly, then meet the three hometown heroes we selected from your nominations!
By Erin Bried Photograph by Robert Erdmann Illustration by Bil Donovan
women doıng Beyoncé good THE GIVER
women doıng good
29, NEW YORK CITY Think you know everything about Beyoncé? Maybe you can do every “Single Ladies” move or you know she sits up front at Lakers games or you work out to “Videophone” on repeat. But what you don’t know about this megastar is that she has a very private passion—one that has nothing to do with her music or even her man. (Sorry, Jay-Z!) It all started when she was growing up in Houston, going to church with her family. “Pastor Rudy is still my pastor. I watched my parents get involved in [community charities] there, and that taught me how important it is to ‘give ’til it hurts.’ I saw how happy you could make people, whether just giving someone a hug, having a conversation or spending some time, and it became a part of me.” That may not sound quite like Sasha Fierce, but, she says, “I’ve always felt that you should give because it’s what you can do to help. You don’t do it to get praised. For a long time, being quiet about what I did was a conscious decision.” Beyoncé was quiet, for instance, about the fact that after she visited Phoenix House, a drug and alcohol treatment center, as part of her research for 2008’s Cadillac Records, she donated her entire salary from the film to the organization. And this spring, she opened the Beyoncé Cosmetology Center there, to provide opportunities for recovering addicts to learn job skills. There’s also The Survivor Foundation, which she founded with her family and 38 Self.com September 2010
women doıng good
women doıng good
women doıng good
Speaking at the opening of the Beyoncé Cosmetology Center in March
former bandmate Kelly Rowland in 2005 to help disaster victims after Katrina hit. And last year, she became a spokeswoman for Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS), a group that helps young women “When you look who have been victims of sex trafficking. So why is she speaking up about all this around at all now? “I’ve realized that sometimes it helps that’s wrong a cause more if I talk publicly about it. in the world, That’s what increases awareness.”
women doıng good
women doıng good
What motivates me Sisterhood means
the need to do something, no matter how big or how small, is clear.”
everything to me. All the charities I’m involved with are special, but I find any organization that focuses on women and children really motivating. GEMS and the young ladies the nonprofit helps are very close to my heart. And what I took away from the clients at Phoenix House changed my life. These were real people who touched me so much that I had to go beyond making a donation. They’re gaining skills at the Cosmetology Center, which will help them earn a living and find their way out of substance abuse—it’s a testament to the possibility of second chances.
Who inspires me My mother, Tina Knowles. She’s an incredibly loving person who is the first to make time for others.
My proudest accomplishment Singing “At Last” for President Barack Obama on his inauguration night was a personal accomplishment for me, both as a performer and an American.
My recharge routine I love going to dinners, seeing plays, visiting museums and spending time with family and friends.
Kelly stays healthy for herself— and her late mother.
One place in my life I’m not a perfectionist I promise I’m working on this, but I could be less messy at home and keep the clothes in my closet and off the floor!
How anyone can make a difference Think about what truly touches you and motivates you to help, then start Get the free mobile app at MORE BEYONCÉ locally. Once it’s in your heart to give, http:/ FEEL-GOOD MOVES / gettag.mobi Snap this icon to get you’ll have to follow through. I am a the 411 on four ways happy woman—very happy—because she stays fit and fierce. Get the free app for your phone I know that I’ve worked hard, and I at http://gettag.mobi. love being able to give back.
THE AVENGER
Minka Kelly
30, LOS ANGELES In 2008, Friday Night Lights star Minka Kelly lost her 51-year-old mother, Maureen, to colon cancer. Rather than collapse into her grief, Kelly, an only child, fought back. She became an ambassador for Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C), a nonprofit that has raised more than $100 million for breakthrough cancer research since its inception in 2008. She’ll also appear on an hour-long, star-studded fundraising special for the organization that will air on all the major networks on September 10 at 8 p.m. ET. Last year, Kelly brought her comic talents to an SU2C public service announcement (go to Self.com to see it) called “The Booby Scare,” where she joined Alyson Hannigan and Emily Deschanel in a darkly funny reminder to get breast exams. And at a 2009 World Series game, she was among the stars leading a stadiumwide “stand up” to help raise cancer awareness. Kelly making her voice heard at the 2009 World Series
40
I know it’s time to jump back into my work when everything I do starts inspiring lyrics and melodies and I can’t keep myself out of the studio.
Why I decided to give back After I lost my mom, I felt the need to do something. Yet when SU2C reached out to me,
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women doıng good
women doıng good
women doıng good
women doıng good
I wasn’t sure how effective my voice would be. I worried I wasn’t famous enough. Eventually, I realized that was a silly way of thinking. Now my attitude is, Screw you if you don’t think my voice is big enough. I will make you hear it.
women doıng good
women doıng good
My lightbulb moment When my mom first felt
“It feels good to know that I’m joining the fight against cancer, as opposed to simply being a victim.”
sick, she kept trying medicines rather than going to the doctor. When she finally went, a grapefruitsized tumor was in her colon and it was too late. If I get one person to go to the doctor a bit sooner and possibly save her life, I’ll feel as if I’ve succeeded.
My proudest accomplishment Before Friday Night Lights, I trained and worked as a scrub nurse, assisting on surgeries
like craniotomies and hysterectomies. I’m also proud of emerging from the loss of my mom in a healthy way.
Who inspires me My dad [former Aerosmith
guitarist Rick Dufay] is my hero. Without him, I’d have stayed in New Mexico, where I lived with my mom, and never fulfilled my dreams. I wasn’t close to him growing up, but he came to Albuquerque when I was 18 and said, “Hey, kid. There’s a big world out there,” and invited me to come to Los Angeles. But it’s the incredible love I got from my mom that gave me the balls to even attempt Hollywood. She instilled me with the confidence to go out there and do whatever I want to do.
What a difference they make “It broke my heart that kids at our local school were starving. I wanted to be a good neighbor.”
We selected these three women from among the mountains of nominations that you—self readers—sent in. These dynamos are so amazing, we donated $10,000 to each of their causes. (Beyoncé’s and Kelly’s get 10K, too!) Give a cheer for these champions of change.
THE NOURISHER 41, PHOENIX Not in my backyard. That’s what Lisa Scarpinato thought when she learned that children in her town were going hungry on weekends, when they didn’t have access to free school lunches. In 2006, she and her husband cofounded Kitchen on the Street, which sends needy kids home from school on Fridays with Bags of Hope—backpacks filled with enough food to see them through until Monday. More than 300 kids get Bags every weekend.
My lightbulb moment A school administrator told us about a girl he saw taking food from the trash in the school cafeteria; she didn’t have anything to eat at home. My husband and I looked at each other and knew we had to do something. That night, we went online and ordered the forms to start a nonprofit.
My proudest accomplishment One family told us that they not only got food at a time when they had none but, through a listing of resources we’d provided in their Bag of Hope, they ended up finding jobs as well! More than 50 volunteers assemble Scarpinato’s Bags of Hope for schools in her Phoenix community.
42 Self.com September 2010
My best life lesson Don’t make assumptions. There are folks who show up at food banks in very nice cars, but what you can’t know is they may be living in those cars.
MARK PETERMAN. HAIR AND MAKEUP, LAURA FLAGLER.
Lisa Scarpinato
women doıng good Ramberg makes online searching an act of altruism.
women doıng good
women doıng good
women doıng good THE BIZ WHIZ
JJ Ramberg
women doıng good
39, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK Imagine donating big bucks without writing a single check. Thanks to GoodSearch.com, cofounded (with her brother, Ken) by JJ Ramberg, host of MSNBC’s Your Business, that’s possible: Simply browse the Web with this Yahoo-powered search engine. With each term you type in (e.g., “Usher’s abs”), you’ll raise a pretty penny— literally one cent—for your favorite nonprofit of the 90,000 on the site. Shop online using GoodSearch.com’s sister site, GoodShop. com, and merchants like Target will donate up to 30 percent of each purchase to a listed cause. Since its 2005 founding, GoodSearch has raised $34,000 for the ASPCA and $14,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. So much for surfing being a waste of time! cancer, food allergies—but only so much you can give. When my brother and I read how much money search engines were making, we decided there had “You don’t need extra to be a way to divert some to good causes.
money, energy or even time to make a difference. All you need is a computer and a heart.”
THE PROTECTOR
Haley Kilpatrick
24, ATLANTA At 10, Haley Kilpatrick started at a new private school as a happy and confident sixth grader. Three years later, she says she felt “diminished,” after being teased and cyberbullied. “The girls made me feel as if I wasn’t good enough. They said I shouldn’t bother coming to school,” she recalls. So at 15, she launched Girl Talk, a mentoring program that pairs high school and middle school girls, in the hope of sparing others what she went through. Nine years later, more than 32,000 girls in 39 states have joined and discovered a way to make the ups and downs of adolescence a bit easier.
My lightbulb moment When girls were mean, I thought, What’s wrong with me? Then, in ninth grade, a senior told me, “I went through that. Everybody feels alone.” It was a revelation.
My proudest accomplishment Getting a note from a mom that said, “Your program saved my daughter’s life.” Her daughter had been secretly cutting herself and was suicidal. When her daughter’s best friend, who was a member of Girl Talk, found 44 Self.com September 2010
What keeps me motivated From the start, my brother and I truly believed in our mission and had the passion to keep it going. My dream For GoodSearch and GoodShop to become well-known verbs, like Google, as in, “I GoodSearched for.…”
Kilpatrick with volunteers and middle schoolers
“Girls have to come together and talk so each one can realize it’s not just her having a rough time. I wish I’d known that.” out, the best friend told her Girl Talk high school mentor, which led to the woman’s daughter getting the help she needed.
Who inspires me most My mother has always been my constant cheerleader and my rock. When I was creating my club, I was afraid of how other girls might react. I remember telling her my fears and asking, “What if they sabotage me?” Her response: “And what if you change lives?” She always sees my potential. n
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My lightbulb moment There are so many charities out there—