Ryan White

In the late 80’s, Michael Jackson reached out to Ryan and befriended him. Ryan visited Neverland regulary and they both shared a special bond. Michael gave Ryan his favorite car, a red Mustang, as a gift a year before he died.

Ryan White died at age 18 on April 8, 1990, 20 years ago today.

“GONNA MAKE A DIFFERENCE, GONNA MAKE IT RIGHT”

Michael Jackson attended his funeral and sat next to Ryan’s mother during the ceremony. At the funeral, Ryan’s car was on display, when Michael started it “Man in the Mirror” was playing. It was Ryan’s favorite song and the last song Ryan heard in his car before dying.

The quote “Gonna Make A Difference, Gonna Make It Right” from “Man In The Mirror” was inscribed on Ryan’s grave.

Gone Too Soon

Three days after the funeral, Michael called Ryan’s mother and said he’d promised Ryan he could be in his next video, but now that he was gone, he couldn’t do that. So instead he asked if he could do a video about Ryan, and that’s how Michael dedicated his video for the song “Gone Too Soon” to Ryan White.

Ryan White was one of a handful of highly visible people with AIDS at that time who helped change the public perception of the disease. He helped to increase public awareness that HIV/AIDS was a significant epidemic and that more funding for AIDS research and more support for people living with HIV/AIDS was needed.

After Ryan’s passing, Michael Jackson continued raising awareness, most notably at Bill Clinton’s Inauguration gala in January 1993, where he gave a speech about Ryan White and sang “Gone Too Soon”.

Friends Forever

Since Michael’s death, Ryan White’s mother, Jeanne White-Ginder, often paid tribute to Michael and his friendship with Ryan White in interviews. Today, a phone conversation between Ryan and Michael that Jeanne had recorded was also published on YouTube.

This morning, to mark the 20th anniversary of Ryan’s passing, a fan named Heidi visited his grave in Cicero, Indiana. She first visited it last August, here is her story about that first visit that she sent me by email along with pictures of Ryan’s grave she took this morning.

I wanted to share my Ryan White/Michael Jackson story with you. I grew up in Indiana and was little when Ryan was going through his struggles. As a young girl, I could never understand how people could be so mean to a little boy just because he had a disease. He dealt with so much discrimination and hate. He has always been a sort of hero to me and since I also grew up loving Michael, it meant so much to me to know that Michael reached out to Ryan and his family, befriending them and being there for them. As you may know, Michael also attended Ryan’s funeral (sitting right next to Jeanne, Ryan’s mother) and burial.

I only live 45 minutes from Ryan’s gravesite, but I had never made the pilgrimage to visit him. Last August, after Michael passed, I felt that I was being guided to visit Ryan. I drove to Cicero with Mapquest directions in hand, looking for Cicero Cemetery. I made it to Cicero, but my Mapquest directions turned out to not be so accurate. Frustrated, I was looking for a place to turn into and get directions (Cicero is very small) when I said, “Michael, you’ve been here before, please guide me to Ryan.” I looked up and the cross street I was coming to was Jackson Street. I thought, “Hmm, ok, I will turn here and see.” I knew that could not be a coincidence. Sure enough, Jackson Street led me directly to Cicero Cemetery. It is a very small cemetery and I pulled in and found his gravesite right away. It was a very beautiful headstone, about six-feet tall, and had lyrics from “Man in the Mirror” enscribed on the stone. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and I just sat there, feeling close to Ryan and even Michael.

Anyway, I haven’t really shared this story with anyone, but I thought you all might appreciate it. I just know Ryan and Michael are hanging out together, just like old times. God bless them both.

Heidi

To learn more about Ryan White and read excerpts from his autobiography about his friendship with Michael Jackson, go to: Malibu Fan Club – Remembering Ryan White

Story and pictures courtesy of Heidi @HDub3.

Several people submitted videos for the project, but others asked for more time to submit theirs, so I’m pushing back the deadline to April 25th.

Please send your submission as soon as possible! I’d like to have the final video released before the end of April.

Unfortunately, people’s attention is slowly drifting away from Haiti. People first reacted because they were shocked and moved by the situation, but even though the media don’t show what’s going on there as much as they did few months ago, there is still a situation of emergency there.

Haiti is now facing another challenge with the rainy saison coming, 1.3 million people are homeless (including 450,000 children) and tents and shelters are missing. The risk of hurricanes, floods and mudslides is also very high.

Don’t wait until more terrible images hit the news and act now to help Haiti! This song will help us promote “Team Michael”, a fundraising team of Michael Jackson fans for UNICEF. “Team Michael” already raised nearly $9,000! We hope the song will help us raise even more and remind people to not forget Haiti.

As previously announced, Quincy Jones teamed up with Lionel Richie to remake the song with more than 60 artists. “We Are The World 25 For Haiti” was premiered during the Vancouver Olympic Games opening ceremony on American television.

You can visit the official site www.wearetheworldfoundation.org to donate to Haiti earthquake relief or buy the song.

Quincy Jones also authorized Latin American artists to record a Spanish version: “Somos El Mundo 25 Por Haiti”.

These remakes inspired many people to cover the song as well and to post their own versions on YouTube, which gives similar results to what we would like to do with our remake. Here is probably the best one, recorded by singers of the YouTube community.

How about Michael Jackson fans? Wouldn’t be a great tribute to Michael to use his song to reach out to the world and help Haiti? There should be a Michael Jackson fan version too! You don’t have to be a professional or confirmed singer to be a part of it. If you can just sing a couple of lines from the song, then you can join the project!

Be a part of “Team Michael” now and help Haiti by donating your voice!

We don’t just need singers but also musicians and people who can translate the lyrics in other languages. We received translations in Romanian, Portuguese, German, Danish, Italian… but we need many more!

Find more details about the remake project and the submission rules:

http://makethatchange.mjdreams.net/2010/02/01/united-for-haiti-we-are-the-world-25th-anniversary/

Learn more about “Team Michael”:

http://makethatchange.mjdreams.net/2010/01/21/team-michael-michael-jackson-fans-united-for-haiti/

Haiti needs you NOW! Thank you!

The song, penned by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones, became the biggest selling single of all time and raised more than $63 million, which allowed USA for Africa to support more than 500 projects and help millions of people in 18 countries in Africa.

Tonight after the Grammy Awards ceremony, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of “We Are The World” and to help the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, many singers will join together to record a new version of the song, once again conducted by Quincy Jones, who will of course request everyone to “check [their] egos at the door”.

But tonight, it is also our turn to celebrate a song that inspired so many other artists around the world to follow USA for Africa’s example and to get together and sing for the world. This song allowed singers to see they can use their art to make a difference and allowed us to see we can achieve great things for the world when many people join for a cause. It became a natural thing for us to buy a charity song or to go to a relief concert, but it all started with groups like Baid Aid and USA for Africa and it all started with people like Michael Jackson.

Many of us spent the past decades relying on Michael to heal the world instead of trying to do it by ourselves. And tonight, it is time we pay attention to what Michael wrote in the song “We Are The World”:

“We can’t go on pretending day by day

That someone, somewhere will soon make a change”

This is why I came up with the idea that we can also get together, all around the world, and record our own version of “We Are The World”. We’ll show the world that we don’t need to be famous and we don’t need to rely on famous singers to use music to make a change and save lives. This might be a crazy idea, but we already showed the world that when Michael Jackson fans get together, they can raise thousands of dollars for a cause, as we did for Haiti thanks to “Team Michael”!

“Team Michael” already helped save hundreds of children in Haiti, but just imagine how many more children we could help if we used this song to raise awareness around the world. Imagine if your voice could save a life.

Today, I’m calling all the singers and musicians out there, no matter how old you are or where you’re from, no matter if you’re a Michael Jackson fan or not, no matter if you love to sing alone in your room or you’re part of a band or a choir at school, church or in any other organization, no matter if you’re an accomplished singer or not… you can help!

Are you ready? Grab a mic, shoot a video of you or your group or choir singing “We Are The World” and send it to Make That Change! We will then edit all videos together to create a unique music video of all your performances and publish it on YouTube and everywhere else! The video will be used to help us raise more funds for Haiti and will hopefully inspire millions of people around the world.

Let’s show the world what “We Are The World” really means, let’s show them that people around the world can get together and sing one song.

If you want to join the project and be part of United for Haiti, please read carefully what’s following.

For this big project, we need:

• Singers - Do you like to sing alone or with your friends? Do you sing in a band or in a choir? Do you perform on stage or just in your room? Then take a camera and film your performance. You can sing the whole song or just the part you’re more comfortable with, even if it’s just one or two lines. The best performances will be chosen to create solo parts and background vocals, like in the original song.
• Musicians - We need musicians to recreate the music of “We Are The World”. If you play in a band, you can try to record an arrangement and send it to us. If you play an instrument, be it the piano or the drums, you can also send your part. You can send it in audio or video format. We’ll use the best musical arrangement or we’ll mix several instrumental sections together if we can’t have a full arrangement made by a single band.
• Translators - Although we ask all participating singers to sing “We Are The World” in English, we would like to subtitle our video with the song lyrics translated in a multitude of languages from all over the world. So if you speak Spanish, German, Japanese, Italian, Arabic, Creole, Dutch, Russian, Greek or any other language, you can help! Just send us your translation of the lyrics. You’ll find the lyrics by clicking here.

IMPORTANT RULES TO FOLLOW:

1. Do not alter the lyrics. You must sing the song in English and use the lyrics as they were written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. You’ll find the lyrics right here.
2. Singers and musicians aged 13 years old or younger must ask permission to their parents or legal guardians before taking part in the project. One of your parents or guardians must appear in the video and clearly state that they allow you to take part and they give Make That Change permission to use your video and image. [UPDATE: You can also email us a scan of a handwritten and signed authorization from your parent or guardian]. Minor participants who are older than 13 years old should also make sure their parents or guardians agree to let them participate in the project. For school choirs, the teacher or person responsible must make sure all the participating children are authorized by their parents or guardians. Please don’t participate if your know that your parents/guardians disagree, you don’t want to cause us any legal problem, right?
3. Pay attention to the sound quality of your performance. Using the mic integrated in your webcam or filming your band with a cellphone may not be the best thing to do. Use a good microphone and a good camera to record your performance. If recording the sound with your computer, make sure to adjust the settings to obtain the best sound quality. If the sound quality is bad, your performance won’t be selected for the final song.
4. Sing a cappella. There is no instrumental version of this song, so we have to remake an instrumental track from scratch (this is why we need musicians). That means we’ll mix your voice on the music so we need to hear only your voice in your video! To stay in tune while you sing, you can play the song in your headphones while your microphone only records your voice.

Now, once you’ve done all that, you can send your video/audio track/translation by email to makethatchange@mjdreams.net

For video and audio files, upload them on megaupload.com and paste the link into your email. For text files, just attach the file to your email.
Also include in your message: your name(s) or the name of your band/school/church/etc., your age, your city and your country.

The deadline to send your contribution is Sunday, February 28, 2010.

Be careful, you only have one month and time goes by fast!

We hope to be able to complete the music video for a release on March 7, 2010, as the original “We Are The World” single was released on that day, 25 years ago.

[IMPORTANT UPDATE: The deadline was pushed back to Sunday, April 25, 2010! Click here for more details.]

The song and video won’t be commercialized but we’ll include the address to our “Team Michael” page at the end of the video to encourage people to donate for the relief efforts in Haiti.

We will also send the video to the Jackson family and Quincy Jones so that they can see how Michael Jackson and “We Are The World” inspired us.

So come and join us in this adventure, and of course, don’t forget to “check your egos at the door”!

To give you some inspiration, here are some great videos of “We Are The World”, including the original music video, Michael Jackson recording his vocals, and two beautiful covers of the song.

Credits: Pictures: MJJ-Online / Lyrics: Steady-Laughing

]]> http://makethatchange.mjdreams.net/2010/02/01/united-for-haiti-we-are-the-world-25th-anniversary/feed/ 11 http://makethatchange.mjdreams.net/2010/01/21/team-michael-michael-jackson-fans-united-for-haiti/ http://makethatchange.mjdreams.net/2010/01/21/team-michael-michael-jackson-fans-united-for-haiti/#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:02:49 +0000 micha http://makethatchange.mjdreams.net/?p=625 Following the violent earthquake that hit Haiti last week, Make That Change has decided to create a fundraising team on the UNICEF website for all the Michael Jackson fans who want to come together and help the victims of this terrible earthquake: Team Michael.

The effort is critical in Haiti, where almost half the population is under 18 years of age. UNICEF is there to help save children by providing health care, water and sanitation, and adequate nutrition.

UNICEF is also there to bring immediate protection to children who have been abandoned or separated from their families. And UNICEF works to get children back to school as soon as possible, to help them recover from the psychological distress associated with emergencies.

Life-saving supplies and equipment are already arriving to help ease the suffering of a people whose history is already too full of hardship. Getting those supplies to the children and families who desperately need them is UNICEF’s highest priority.

Team Michael is a UNICEF fundraising team for the relief efforts in Haiti. This team was created by and for Michael Jackson fans to continue helping those in need during this crisis.

If Michael Jackson was still amongst us, we know he would have been deeply affected by the situation in Haiti. Michael was supposed to perform on stage in London the day of the earthquake, and then on January 14th. Many fans believe he would have dedicated his concerts to the people of Haiti, and would have donated the proceeds from these shows to the relief efforts in Haiti.

As a result, tens of thousands of fans would have been able to help Haiti simply by being in the audience in one of these shows.

Michael is not there, but we fans can still get together and help the children of Haiti, in his name. We are millions, and if each one of us makes a small donation, we will save thousands of children lives. Every dollar counts.

It doesn’t take much to save a child’s life:

• $1 can provide a child in an emergency situation safe drinking water for 40 days
• $12 can provide one emergency first aid kit
• $50 can provide 40 packets of high energy/protein biscuits
• $68 can provide water purification tablets to provide 50,000 litres of clean water

In honor of Michael Jackson, please donate now!

100% of your donation will go to fund relief efforts in Haiti.

The children of Haiti are counting on you!

Team Michael: http://inside.unicefusa.org/goto/Team-Michael

Short link: http://bit.ly/TeamMichael

Follow @MJJNews or @MichaelsChange for the latest updates on #TeamMichael

Facebook Page

(CNN) — A major earthquake struck southern Haiti on Tuesday, knocking down buildings and power lines and inflicting what its ambassador to the United States called a catastrophe for the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.

Several eyewitnesses reported heavy damage and bodies in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, where concrete-block homes line steep hillsides. There was no estimate of the dead and wounded Tuesday evening, but the U.S. State Department has been told to expect “serious loss of life,” department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington.

The magnitude 7.0 quake — the most powerful to hit Haiti in a century — struck shortly before 5 p.m. and was centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) southwest of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It could be felt strongly in eastern Cuba, more than 200 miles away, witnesses said.

Because of the earthquake’s proximity to the capital, and because the city is densely populated and has poorly constructed housing, “it could cause significant casualties,” said Jian Lin, a senior geologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

(more on CNN.com)

Help the people of Haiti by donating to one of the following organizations:

United States

• American Red Cross – Text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross relief for Haiti.
• Yéle Haiti – Text “YELE” to 501501 to donate $5 to Wyclef Jean’s foundation for relief in Haiti.
• UNICEF USA – Visit www.unicefusa.org/haitiquake to help the children of Haiti who are victim of the earthquake.
• Doctors Without Borders – All their facilities were devastated by the earthquake, but they are still trying to treat hundreds of injured people. They need all our support.
• More ways to help the people of Haiti.

International - Donate online by visiting the Red Cross, UNICEF or Doctors Without Borders websites of your country. You can also donate to Yéle Haiti from anywhere in the world. Follow @MichaelsChange on Twitter for more information on your country.

Please spread the word. Share and retweet this post. Thank you!

I was thinking about the fact that this Christmas would be our very first Christmas without Michael Jackson, it would also be exactly 6 months to the day he died, and I felt it would be the worst Christmas of my life.

Christmas is traditionally a family event, but my family doesn’t really celebrate it. But I love Christmas so every year, I spend it with the family of one of my friends. However, this year, I wanted to do something different, something that would keep me busy enough to avoid thinking about sad things. My friend told me that in 2008, she volunteered at a Christmas Eve dinner for the elderly and lonely people. I asked her if she would do it again this year, and this is how our project was born.

I told my friends on Facebook about our idea, and three other friends were interested in joining us. Most of us were Michael Jackson fans, and we felt this was something he would be happy to see us doing. But little did we know how much we would be able to pay tribute to Michael thanks to this!

The organization responsible for the Christmas Eve dinner is called “Demain Mieux qu’Hier” (“Tomorrow Better than Yesterday”) and is located near Paris. They receive more than 100 guests, and about 40 young volunteers help serve meals and put on a show every year. Our mission was to serve the meals and to sit down and chat with the guests during the dinner.

But a couple of days before the dinner, we learned that they needed some dancers for their show, which was supposed to be a parody of “America/Britain’s Got Talent”, and knowing that Marion was a Michael Jackson fan, they wanted us to dance on a MJ song!

The thing is, I really can’t dance! I can barely do “Beat It” and the moonwalk, and that’s about it. But they needed something longer, like “Thriller”, which we had never tried dancing! Of course, we all watched the legendary short film a million times, but executing the moves is another story. This is how me and Marion and another friend found ourselves rehearsing “Thriller” in front of the TV set in Marion’s living room, knowing we would only have a few hours to learn the whole dance routine before the Christmas dinner. To make things even more complicated, we decided at the last minute to not just dance “Thriller”, but to make it a medley and to add a little bit of “I Want You Back”, “The Way You Make Me Feel” and “Beat It”. Which means we didn’t just have to learn the dance, we also had to create a mix of all the songs for the music.

Marion & Zack before the show

As a result, we arrived late for the dinner, but we were still able to help serve the desserts, and two of my friends – who absolutely didn’t want to go on stage and dance in front of everybody – agreed to dress up as Santa Claus with some other volunteers, to go on stage and do a little dance while opening Champagne bottles! I wish I could show you photos and videos of this, but obviously, they don’t want me to post them here, haha!

Anyway, after clearing out the tables, the show started and then came our time to dance! We did our best and it was far from perfect, even though my two other friends were great dancers, but we had a lot of fun doing it, and judging by the reactions during our performance and all the compliments we heard after, I think everyone had as much fun watching us, which was the most important. Here are some photos from our performance.

I felt really proud to pay tribute to Michael on that day. It wasn’t just the fact that we danced on his songs, but to me, working hard all day long to try and learn all these dance moves Michael and his choreographers created and perfected almost 30 years ago was also a way to pay tribute to his work as a dancer.

And most importantly, giving our time and energy so that other people could enjoy a great Christmas Eve dinner was the best way for us to pay tribute to Michael’s heart. Michael loved Christmas but couldn’t help thinking about all those who are lonely or don’t have the possibility to celebrate Christmas. He talked about this in a video message he made in 2002:

We didn’t know what to expect of this Christmas Eve, we feared it would be a sad Christmas this year, but we all came to realize it was in fact one of the best Christmases of our lifes. We had so much fun and we felt guided by Michael’s spirit. What I like most is that it all started with one person in 2008, then this year we were five, and after seeing the pictures, some of my friends told me they wanted to join us next year if we do it again.

And maybe after reading this blog post, even more people will want to do something similar next year. If you’re in a situation where you usually don’t know what to do on Christmas or if you just want to make this holiday more meaningful, just search for an organization that makes Christmas Eve dinners for lonely or underpriviledged people where you live, and ask your friends to join you for the next Christmas. This could be the beginning a new Christmas tradition around the world!

Special thanks to Marion a.k.a. “Duchesse”, Nico a.k.a. “Woodi”, John, and Zack a.k.a. “His Airness”. :)

All the Michael Jackson fans know about Louie the llama. He may not be as iconic as Bubbles the chimp, but everybody knows Michael had a llama. Louie was just a pet for Michael, but for some people in the world, a llama is a true blessing.

And it’s not just true for llamas but for a lot of other animals too!

In many parts of the world, people who are the most vulnerable to hunger are mostly farmers. They try to grow their own food, yet they don’t manage to get enough to eat. That’s because a lot of problems may prevent them from getting successful harvests every year: droughts, health problems, lack of training, no farm machinery… When it becomes too difficult, they may leave the countryside and move to big cities, but life is not always easier or safer there. And when many people quit farming in the same country, then it’s the whole population that becomes more vulnerable to hunger and more dependant of foreign countries for food.

For these farmers, a simple animal can be a real treasure and help them become self-reliant.

A cow can provide enough milk every morning for a family to drink and the protein-rick milk will help the children stay healthy. Families can sell the surplus of milk or dairy products to pay for school, healthcare and clothes. Cows and oxen can be used to plow fields and to help farmers grow much more food, and the manure can be used to fertilize fields, improving crops even more – and even to make fuel.

Cows, goats, sheep, pigs, chicks, geese or llamas, they can all bring immeasurable benefits to struggling families.

Llamas are a blessing to families with limited pasture land because they can eat the scrub vegetation that other domesticated animals won’t eat. Llama droppings help fertilize soil and they provide families with transportation and wool that can be weaved into warm clothing to wear or sell.

So this Christmas, why not offering a llama… or a goat, a sheep or maybe a flock of chicks to a family in need at the other side of the globe?

With Heifer International, it’s possible to do that. While many organizations promise to end world hunger by providing cups of foods to people who suffer from famine, this non-profit organization made the choice to work with local communities and to donate animals instead in order to help them become more self-reliant and less vulnerable to hunger. An animal helps improving families situations both on the short and the long run.

With each animal donated come training and education programs, help to build or adapt farms to animal breeding, equipments, as well as a technical and veterinary follow-up.

And with the “Pass On The Gift” program, farmers who take part in Heifer International projects agree to share the offspring of gift animals with others in need, thus helping lift whole communities out of poverty around the world.

So if you offer one goat or llama today, you won’t just help one family, you’ll create a vertuous circle which will help many families or even an entire village. You didn’t think you could do so much all by yourself, did you?

In this video, you’ll be able to see the positive impact of your gift thanks to the “Pass On The Gift” program.

Heifer International allows you to donate for a full animal or to donate for animal shares. That means it would take 8 persons who pay for a $20 share to offer a llama to a family in Latin America, or 12 persons paying for a $10 share to offer a sheep or a goat to someone in Asia, Africa or Eastern Europe. And if you want to offer a whole gift by yourself, you can easily buy a flock of chicks, ducks and geese for only $20 and provide families with meat and eggs for the years to come!

Do you think we can find enough fans to offer a llama or a goat or a few flocks of chicks to one or several families somewhere in the world for this holiday season? These presents will sure bring smiles on a lot of children’s faces when they get them, and I’m sure this would make Michael smile too.

To donate, please follow this link and make your choice:

https://secure.heifer.org/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.488975/site/apps/ka/ec/store.asp?StoreId=10677

This link will allow me to see in real time how much we managed to raise. I’ll update this post regularly to let you know!

If you can’t donate but really would like to help reach us that goal, please spread the word! Use the retweet button at the top of this post, post a link to Facebook or copy this post on Michael Jackson message boards. You could help me a lot my doing that!

Thank you and have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

PS: I just found this video on YouTube and I think it pretty much sums up what I said in this blog post LOL!

PS 2: We are now after Christmas, but you can still help! The project is extended until January 31st!

Goal to reach: raising enough money to donate a goat or a llama to a family. If 10 people each donate $10, we’ll reach the goal! So please help us!

Also, please read this article about a 7 year old girl who decided to ask people to donate to Heifer International instead of buying her Christmas presents… You can still help her!

Seven Year Old Girl Raises Money For Heifer International

by ERICA LIEPMANN, Causecast Associate Editor

Alyssa Ripley is your average seven year old girl, attending second grade in her hometown of Proctorsville, Vermont. Except this year, when Christmas came around, instead of toys, Alyssa’s Christmas wish list included chicks, goats and even water buffalo. That’s because Alyssa asked friends and family to make a donation to Heifer International in lieu of buying her Christmas gifts. Heifer is a nonprofit organization working to alleviate poverty around the globe by giving animals to people in need, thereby providing them with access to a steady income, food, clothing and more.

So far, Alyssa has raised over $700 for Heifer – but she won’t stop there. She has set her sights on raising $8,000 for the organization, which includes the elusive $5,000 Gift Ark.

How you can help Alyssa reach her goal:

Head over to Alyssa’s fundraising page on the Heifer International website. Whether you’ve only got a few dollars to spare or are ready to make a sizable contribution, Alyssa will surely be happy to edge that much closer to her $8,000 goal.

[Source: Causecast]

You can also read another article about Alyssa’s project on the Rutland Herald website.

So if you feel like making a 7 year old girl happy even after Christmas, go to Alyssa’s fundraising page instead of mine, and help her reach her goal! So far, she raised $871.00!

This blog is for all the fans of Michael Jackson who want to continue his legacy and to make a change in their lives and in the world.

You will find lots of tips and creative ideas that will help you make a positive impact on this world and on others, stories and experiences from other fans, information on important causes and what you can do to help, as well as information and stories about Michael Jackson’s humanitarian work and the causes and charities he helped during his life.

I hope you’ll enjoy the blog and you’ll come back often!