population-we™: I Heart Celebrity Causes Highlights Maria Menounos' Take Action Hollywood!

As a society we like our celebrities and tend to support the causes they endorse with this status. Our celebrities are those that entertain and inspire us such as those that act in the movies, on television and the stage, our favorite musicians, athletes from our favorite teams or provide national pride representing at the Olympics, the authors of our favorite literary works and those that provide contributions in the world of art. Each month in this population-we™ (pop-we) series, I Heart Celebrity Causes, a celebrity will be chosen and the cause that they promote will be looked at.

I Heart Celebrity Causes!

This month in the ninth installment of I Heart Celebrity Causes the focus is on Maria Menounos and Take Action Hollywood! Menounos has been in the public eye for years as correspondent and host on Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, Extra and E! News. She has also written a series of books to help empower people to a healthy lifestyle. For a few years she also made the jump from lifelong fan to participant as she wrestled in the WWE.

Menounos founded Take Action Hollywood! in 2002 after a trip to South Africa where she witnessed the devastation of AIDS on the people there. The mission is to raise awareness about social issues by utilizing the entertainment industry. Menounos and co-founder Keven Undergaro self initiated many of the programs they are involved in. Among the issues they are helping promote are HIV\AIDS healthcare, diabetes, autism, public school diversity, pet neutering and childhood obesity. Currently Menounos is the ambassador for the Entertainment Industry Foundation's Diabetes Aware campaign.

Take Action One Cup was launched in 2007 to call upon students around the country to identify problems in their communities and come up with creative and impactful solutions. It is an annual competition designed to empower both students and their communities. Teams made of students from middle and high schools around the country compete by identifying a problem and exhibiting a solution that has the greatest amount of creativity, dedication and impact. They are judged by both their peers through online voting and campaigning and by a panel of academics, pro-social activists and celebrities. The first Cup was done with Cosmogirl magazine but now its done with Channel One News.

One charity event Menounos finds most gratifying is the Annual Day of Beauty at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Menounos along with a team of make-up artists and hair designers along with other celebrities go to the Teen Lounge to give makeovers to participating patients and their families. Ranked as one of the top five children's hospitals in the nation it treats the gambit of health issues including the rarest and most complex in pediatrics. Many of the participating patients are terminally ill. All also receive amazing gift bags containing a wide assortment of products and Menounos often leaves the lounge to take bags to patients in rooms who couldn't make it down.The 8th Annual Day of Beauty took place on November 7, 2014.

Information on how to give to this charity can be found on the Take Action Hollywood! donation page.

Most importantly, Bravo to pop-we I Heart Celebrity Causes--Maria Menounos--for her Take Action Hollywood! efforts.

-population-we™ blog post by John Bohan

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