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Empowering Teens to Do Good
The Backstreet Boys have it all: the looks, the moves and, of course, adoring fans the world over. In their new album, "Millennium," the Backstreet Boys sing about how much their fans are affecting the Boys' "reality." Through the help of one of the Backstreet Boys and iGive.com, a Web site that turns online shopping into philanthropy, Backstreet Boys fans are helping "affect the reality" of children with heart disease.
 Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell, "B-Rok" to his fans, was born with a ventricular septal defect, a small hole between the left and right ventricles of the heart. At age five, he was hospitalized at the St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington, Ky., for treatment of an infection of his heart muscle. Eighteen years later, Brian had surgery to repair the hole in his heart. Now a member of the famous Backstreet Boys, Brian asked the hospital to help him create a fund to help other children with heart problems. Together they established the Brian Littrell Healthy Heart Club for Kids.
The Brian Littrell Healthy Heart Club for Kids is a program that provides education, exercise, nutrition and rehabilitation for children with an established medical need or those at risk to develop heart conditions. Brian encouraged his fans to support him through his surgery by donating to the Club. Donations from loving fans poured into St. Joseph's Hospital, and fans raised more than $14,000 for the Club through iGive.com, an online charity site that enables its members to raise money for their favorite causes through online shopping.
Brittany Martin, a 13-year-old fan, is one of thousands of teens who shop through iGive.com to support the kids in the Brian Littrell Healthy Heart Club. Brittany shops regularly for Brian's Club at her favorite stores like dELiA*s and CDNow.
"The Backstreet Boys are one of my favorite groups, and Brian is my favorite because he has the best voice and is the cutest," said Martin. "I already knew about iGive.com and thought it was the perfect way to support Brian and help kids with heart problems. Every teenager should check out iGive.com because it's easy and doesn't involve anything more than going online, which is what teens do every day. Plus, with online shopping you have all the time you want to shop without your parents getting in the way."
Because teens like Brittany are shopping online at iGive.com, more than $14,000 has been raised for the Brian Littrell Healthy Heart Club for Kids. C. Edward Wardle, executive director of the St. Joseph Hospital Foundation and the Brian Littrell Healthy Heart Club for Kids, believes strongly in the power of online charity.
"iGive.com is our partner in creating this exciting new program instituted by the Backstreet Boys' Brian Littrell," said Wardle. "iGive is a new wrinkle in cause-related marketing and provides a fantastic way for the foundation to utilize Internet technology."
Jackie Littrell, Brian's mother, works with Wardle in the administration of the Brian Littrell Healthy Heart Club for Kids and has positive words for iGive.com.
"Thank you iGive.com for helping us help children by providing people with the opportunity to give something back from their own abundance," said Littrell. "We are so blessed with prosperity in this country and the fans' unselfishness and ability to make a difference in the next generation will be remembered."
Brian isn't the only Backstreet Boy supporting those in need. In honor of his mother, Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough established the Caroline Dorough-Cochran Lupus Memorial Foundation, and fans are rallying to support his cause through iGive.com just as they're supporting Brian's. Backstreet Boys fans are known for their dedication to and love for the Boys, but there is far more to these fans than wildfire fanaticism. Following the lead of their idols, fans are doing their part to show that there are giving hearts behind the hype.
About iGive.com:
iGive.com pioneered the concept of online shopping for charity. iGive.com enables consumers to shop at more than 200 major online retailers while directing a percentage of the dollars spent to causes that are important to the shopper. Since the site's founding in 1997, iGive.com's members have generated more than $615,000 for worthy causes. There is no cost to the shoppers or the causes.
About the Brian Littrell Healthy Heart Club for Kids:
Created by Brian Littrell, member of the popular group Backstreet Boys, this fund assists children with congenital heart problems or those who are at risk to develop heart disease. The Littrell fund has been supported by the Littrell family, as well as Brian's fans from around the world. Contact the Brian Littrell Healthy Heart Club for Kids at: http://www.sjhlex.org
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