I’m dreaming of a green as in sustainable Christmas where every major celebrity in the world gives instead of receives. I’m not talking accolades or remunerations for services. I’m speaking about sweet charity.
Most have their favorite causes and give. Some big time. Others fringe thanks to mega public relations strategies who position clients to look like they are givers or charitable. And a few have been caught with more then philanthropic intentions.
If Allan Carr were alive, producer of the all time box office hit movie Grease, he would have had a few congratulatory words for Newton-John and Travolta having learned about their latest venture; to reunite after 35 years, produce an album and donate all their proceeds to charity.
Why not?
This Christmas, their new album, is a brilliant concept for giving. There isn’t a human being alive who won’t want to buy it because their investment for entertainment is supporting two of the most important charitable missions. Newton-John, a breast cancer survivor, and founding member of Healthy Child Healthy World, one of the most respected children’s charities in America, set her goals to donate all of her proceeds to support her own hospital, The Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Center which is based in Melbourne, Australia. John Travolta, having lost his son to complications resulting from a seizure, has established the Jett Travolta Foundation, which works to combat children’s disabilities including Autism.
The pure magic of this divine combination of talent is not just what the album offers but the sense of hope and inspiration that will directly affect countless women who are stricken with breast cancer and thousands of children who suffer from a wide range of disabilities.
The album also provides tracks from featured artists Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett and Kenny G.
Always shooting for the sky, (he spends a great deal of time in his private air planes) Travolta got the idea to record the album “after receiving a text from his dear friend Olivia noting that their 1978 smash, ‘You’re the One That I Want,’ had just become the best-selling duet in pop music history.”
Not bad for a couple of celebs whose iconic images still remain two of the most notable in the history of cinema.
Albeit Judy Garland and her Toto may prove to be competition in the long run. Or Julie Andrews in Sound of Music…which was greener than green and influenced millions before the word green found new meaning.
Speaking of sound, This Christmas is a winner for any season. The track list features classic holiday tunes and one original song, “I Think You Might Like It.” That new tune was written by John Farrar, who penned the “Grease” hits “You’re the One That I Want” and “Hopelessly Devoted to You.”
“We all felt a wonderful, joyful energy while recording this album,” Newton-John said in a statement. “We want to make a lot of people smile and happy. It’s a project that we’re hoping turns into a perennial, one that can continue to raise money for these causes year after year, a gift that keeps on giving.”
This Christmas is due out Nov. 13. Check out the track list below:
1. Baby It’s Cold Outside
2. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree (featuring Kenny G)
3. I’ll Be Home for Christmas (featuring Barbra Streisand)
4. This Christmas (featuring Chick Corea)
5. Silent Night
6. The Christmas Waltz
7. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (featuring Cliff Richard)
8. Winter Wonderland (featuring Tony Bennett and The Count Basie Orchestra)
9. White Christmas
10. I Think You Might Like It
11. The Christmas Song
12. Deck the Halls (featuring James Taylor)
13. Auld Lang Syne/Christmas Time Is Here (Medley)
Get those chestnuts early, start stoking those embers because Santa is getting ready to burn millions of CD’s and he wants to know you care.
No doubt! This Christmas everyone knows John and Olivia are the ones that we want.
Nancy Chuda is a seasoned broadcast journalist, television writer/producer, talk show host and author. Her career spans over three decades having appeared on both national and cable television.
In 1971 she authored one of America’s first low-calorie cookbooks, How To Gorge George Without Fattening Fanny, published by Hawthorn Books. Appearing as a regular guest on Dinah’s Place, Dinah Shore’s ABC daytime talk show. And later on The Johnny Carson Show, The Today Show with Barbara Walters, Merv Griffin, Phil Donahue, and David Frost. In 1972, Nancy and ABC’s Good Morning America co-produced Michael Krause produced a cable program, The Low- Calorie Gallery, based on her best selling cook book. In 1975, hired by Warner-Amex as part of a creative team, she was responsible for hosting and producing content for Columbus Then and Now, a program, the invention of QUBE, an interactive television system which played a pivotal role in the history of American cable television. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUBE
In 1978 she developed a series for ABC’s Good Morning America based on an article which appeared in Mother Earth News magazine. The Integral Urban House, a case study project and model for a sound urban habitat sponsored by the Farallones Institute in Berkley California was the first example of green architecture ever to be televised.
In 1979, Nancy co-produced and hosted Sunnyside a Los Angeles based public affairs program viewed on the CBS affiliate station KNXT, From 1980-1984, she appeared on KABC’s Eyewitness News as entertainment reporter and film critic.
Her environmental advocacy began when her daughter was diagnosed with cancer. In 1990 she co-produced an Emmy nominated ABC Variety Special, An Evening With Friends For The Environment to benefit Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet one of the first national children’s environmental health advocacy groups in which she served as a volunteer.
Currently, she is the co-founder and President Emeritus of Healthy Child Healthy World, a non-profit organization established to honor the Chuda’s only child, Colette, who died in 1991 at the age of 5 from Wilm’s tumor a nonhereditary childhood cancer. She is also the co-founder of The Colette Chuda Environmental Fund, a donor-advised fund which supports major epidemiological research on children’s health.
Nancy has won numerous awards for her advocacy. In 1996, the California League of Conservation Voters Environmental Leadership Award, The Healthy Schools Heroes Award, presented to both her and her husband James Chuda by California Governor Gray Davis for their legislative efforts in securing The Healthy Schools Act which was signed into law in September, 2000. In 2003, Parent’s Magazine published an article Mom’s On A Mission and awarded Nancy for her environmental leadership for children’s environmental health.
She serves as an associate of the Director’s Council of Public Representatives of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was appointed by President Clinton’s Health and Human Services Secretary, Donna Shalala, to serve as a member of the National Advisory Council for the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) a position she held for four years.
In 2010, along with her husband James she founded LuxEcoLiving.
Nancy Chuda tagged this post with:
cancer, charity, Children's Health, Green, Healthy Child Healthy World, healthy living, wellness Read 160 articles by Nancy Chuda
By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and co-founders of Healthy Child Healthy World
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