But fret not,  they won’t be gone for good!  Just long enough for The Digital Life Sacrifice’s internet campaign to raise a million bucks!  K im Kardashian has posed dead in a coffin for a new advert promoting The Digital Life Sacrifice, an internet campaign in which stars including Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and Usher will quit social networking sites to raise money for charity.

As a part of the campaign a host of celebrities will log off social networking sites and not sign back in until 1 million dollars has been raised, reports the Daily Mail.  It is being organised by Alicia Keys’ Keep A Child Alive charity for World AIDS Day on Tuesday. Jennifer Hudson, Ryan Seacrest, Elijah Wood, Serena Williams and Swizz Beatz are also taking part.  I love unique campaigns like this and wish them well and am sure they will hit the one million mark quickly!!

Everyone would like to believe that doing charity work is a purely unselfish state of mind but then we see news like this. The Oshawa Hospital Foundation’s chief executive officer is using his own company to run fundraising events for the foundation, including lotteries and gala concerts.

The Toronto Star uncovered this highly unusual arrangement as part of an ongoing investigation into charity in Canada.

Jim Szeman, the supercharged, quick-talking boss of the foundation, said his company Uncommon Results — registered in British Columbia but doing work in Oshawa — provides great service for the foundation he runs. No competitive process was used to hire his company.

read the full story here

Great news for all us generous Canadians,  the “World Giving Index”, the largest study ever carried out into charitable behaviour across the globe, which ranked the UK the eighth most charitable nation in the world, has found that happier people are more likely to give money to charity than those who are wealthy.

The “World Giving Index” used a Gallup survey on the charitable behaviour of people in 153 countries representing 95% of the world’s population. The survey asked people whether they had given money to charity in the last month and to rank how happy they are with life on a scale of one to ten. For all countries CAF compared the strength of the relationship between giving with both a nation’s GDP and the happiness of its population. CAF found that the link between happiness and giving is stronger than the link between wealth and giving.

The study also measured two other types of charitable behaviour alongside giving money – volunteering time and helping a stranger. The “World Giving Index” combines the levels of each charitable behaviour to produce a ranking of the most charitable nations in the world. We scored third overall and that is very amazing!!

Our founding member,  Standard Auto Wreckers (www.standardautowreckers.com) received a nice note from Sunshine Foundation, they are a great charity that is making Dreams for Kids with severe disabilities as well as life-threatening illnesses come true.   We are very proud of our association with this worthwhile charity and hope to continue donating funds that make a difference in these childrens lives.

A local Realtor made good on a promise to climb Grouse Mountain for charity. Sebastian Albrecht climbed the Grouse Grind 14 times in one day, beating his personal best of 13 from last year. It’s the equivalent of climbing 12,000 meters straight up.

News1130 chatted with Albrecht after his amazing journey. So how was he feeling after hours of Mother Nature’s stair-master?

Albrecht: “Legs are okay actually, feeling a bit nauseous but other than that pretty good.”What was the hardest part about getting up 14 times?Albrecht: “Pretty much everything after number six.”

His trek began at 6:30 a.m. Monday and wrapped up shortly after 11 p.m. A torrential downpour also tried to slow him down, but he says a group of 50 school kids were on hand to cheer him on. Money raised for his event went towards the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation. Good job, another generous Canadian!

Tire Roundup Event for Charity at Standard Auto Wreckers – Do your part by bringing in your old tires and have them recycled for charity!

Standard Auto Wreckers is collecting used TIRES to raise money for The Sunshine Foundation of Canada.

In partnership with Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association (OARA) and Ontario Tire Stewardship (OTS), Standard Auto Wreckers will be collecting you used tires free of charge. All tire fees associated with each tire dropped off will be donated to The Sunshine Foundation of Canada and OARA will match the donation made from all tires collected.

There will be a trailer parked at the Standard Auto Wreckers location for the Tire Collection event.

What: Community Tire Collection Event for charity at Standard Auto Wreckers

When: Friday June 25, 2010 and Saturday June 26, 2010

Where: 1216 Sewells Ave. Toronto, Ontario

Great charity even happening as we speak! Bollywood stars and Sri Lanka’s cricketers hit the pitch for charity Friday to help rehabilitate child soldiers and build homes for families affected by the country’s civil war.

India’s Hindi language movie stars Sunil Shetty, Hrithik Roshan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Sri Lankan national team captain Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan, batting great Aravinda de Silva and Upul Chandana were some of the members of the star-studded teams that played two cricket matches of 10 and 8 overs each. Former Indian players Vinod Kambli and Ajay Jadeja, who has starred in Hindi movies, also participated.

“Being able to play with Sanga, Murali, Sanath and Aravinda I think is an absolute dream,” said Shetty who showcased his batting ability with a six against Muralitharan, the world’s leading wickettaker in his first match score of 26.

“A brilliant cause we are all here for.” The charity matches were part of International Indian Film Award functions in Sri Lanka.

Sabbas Joseph, director of Wizcraft International which owns IIFA, said the proceeds from the cricket will be split between “Cricket for Children,” an initiative by the U.N. Children’s’ Fund and Sri Lanka Cricket that helps former child soldiers, and Habitat for Humanity to build homes for 100 families in the island’s war-torn north.

Thousands of fans thronged Colombo’s Sinhalese Sports Club ground for an evening of cricket and music. Off the pitch, stars like Salman Khan, Viveik Oberoi, Anil Kapoor and Bipasha Basu drove around in open cars, greeting cheering fans.

Sections of the Indian movie industry called for a boycott of IIFA’s Sri Lanka events over allegations that Sri Lankan troops killed thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians in the final stages of the civil war last year. The protesters are from the southern state for Tamil Nadu who have linguistic and family ties with Sri Lanka’s Tamils.

According to Indian media reports, Bollywood’s biggest star Amitabh Bachchan, IIFA’s brand ambassador, his actor son Abhishek and daughter-in-law, former Miss World and actress Aishwarya Rai, will not participate along with actor Shah Rukh Khan.

Great, uplifting article by Jen Gerson at the Calgary Herald

Clad in Spandex, gloves and thin metallic thermal blankets, more than 8,600 runners hit city streets for the 46th annual Scotiabank Calgary Marathon. The contestants spanned the gamut, from elite marathon hounds to young families.

Renata Martin, 40, an auditor from Calgary, was one of the hundreds of runners to queue for free coffee after completing the 10-kilometre run. She said she trained over the winter for Sunday’s race.

“The winter is the best time to run. You can layer to become more comfortable,” she said. “When it gets warmer, layering up gets harder.” The temperature, which hovered above freezing, may have proven a bit uncomfortable for the sedentary. But for Martin, conditions were perfect.

“If it were warmer, I might not have made it out. I might have walked,” she said. This is the first year marathon organizers launched the Scotiabank Group Charity Challenge, which raised more than a quarter of a million dollars “and counting,” according to Michelle Cobb, a spokeswoman for the bank.

“We are just thrilled with the $250,000. It’s the inaugural year for the charity challenge so we couldn’t be happier,” she said. The amount was well over the target of $150,000. The challenge gave runners the opportunity to gain pledges for one of 19 charities, including Team Diabetes Canada and the Alberta Cancer Foundation.

Team Diabetes was the top fundraiser, collecting more than $78,000. The marathon attracted several elite runners, including Lisa Harvey, a Calgarian and 1992 Olympian; Kip Kangogo, a Kenyan native who lives in Lethbridge; and Jason Loutitt of Trail, B.C., who recently won the Vancouver Marathon.

However, the Calgary Marathon is increasingly becoming a family affair as well. Scott Fisk, 42, a business analyst, completed a five-km portion of the marathon with his eight-year-old daughter, McKenna. “I wanted to do it because I thought I could have a lot of fun and get some exercise,” she said. Fisk said the race was a great opportunity to bond with his daughter.

“We ran for the first kilometre, then we got tuckered out a bit, didn’t we?” he said. “Then we walked and ran for the rest, but ran across the finish line. That was exciting.” Glen Scott, 40, an engineer, completed the 42-km circuit in just under two and a half hours in a specially designed wheelchair for runners.

“It wasn’t bad considering I had a flat tire for half of the race,” he said. “It was a little slower than last year.” He’s been participating in the marathon for the past five years. “I used to do the marathon as a runner. Now I race in the chair.”

Amazing accomplishment and great example of never giving up.

One of our favourite Canadians is helping yet another charity in her hometown.  PETA spokeswoman Pamela Anderson has taken a walk on the wild side – to help raise money for charity.  The former Baywatch star participated in a three-mile fundraising walk through her hometown of Malibu.

The walk benefited the California Wildlife Centre and Anderson, who is currently participating on the reality TV show Dancing With The Stars, was also given the top honour of the day.  She released back into the wild a pelican that had been rehabilitated by the Centre.  Now three miles is not exactly a marathon but Pam is always doing great things for charity so we salute her!

I was lucky enough to get a snap-shot of a really cool cheque presentation ceremony today. $13k in cash will help provide 26,000 meals to hungry people across Canada!

From left to right: David Gold – Owner of Standard Auto Wreckers, Paul Coon – VP Green Vehicle Disposal, Jay Granofsky – Search Marketing Manager Charity Car Canada and Kayley Collum – Program Co-ordintor and Heather Nelson – Manager of Development both from Food Banks Canada