Celebrity Philanthropy

Many celebrities pick a cause at some point. Whether it's realizing they can do some good with their fame, need to assuage their guilt for having when so many have not, or just having more money than they could ever possibly spend... Pierce Brosnen's for PETA, Brad Pitt's for UNICEF, Harry Chapin founded World Hunger Year, and Angelina Jolie is adopting everyone who will let her.

Well Kevin Smith has found his cause. While it might surprise you, it doesn't have anything to do with Hockey or the Dignity of Overweight Americans. Mr. Smith's cause is Child Prostitution.

Just to be clear, he's against it.

A while back, Kev got to know a pretty amazing human being over Twitter. She had been a child prostitute you see, and though her tale has a happy ending, it blew our man Smith away. Lest you think you're of tougher stuff, I'll summarize:

Ms. Walton, due to some molestation and parental neglect, wound up in a relationship with a 46 year old man while she was 13. This... charmer then lent her out to several of his friends in the BDSM community (most likely in exchange for money) for much of her 13th and 14th years. I won't go into details. If you want to hear her tell her own story, you can go here (and skip 4:30 in). But what I will say is that as horrible as this obviously is, it's probably the best case scenario for such things. She got out of the situation by just deciding to stop it. I'm not saying that decision was easy to make, but there were no threats, no violence keeping her where she was. Many many MANY children aren't so lucky.

Depending on who you ask, there are at least 200,000 children being prostituted in the United States, and as many as 800,000 internationally. By comparison, there are maybe 200 beds in facilities in the US to help these children get out of the life and put their minds, bodies, and souls back together.

This is NOT okay.

Enter the Wayne Foundation (named after both Wayne Gretzky, who has more assists than anyone in the history of professional sports, and the charitable foundation that Batman's alter ego Bruce Wayne established). Their mission is to set up a safe house (hopefully named "Wayne Manor") where children can escape their slavery and start to get the help they'll need to become happy, healthy adults.

This will NOT be easy. They just got started this month (March, 2011). The amount of money required to purchase and staff the facility needed, the security, the outreach... it's staggering. But the size of the project isn't discouraging these real-life super heros. They're all legally registered as a legit charitable cause and are accepting donations.

Please give a little something. That buck worth of change that you lose in the couch cushions over the course of a week. The five bucks you'd otherwise blow on some fancy-ass latte you don't need. Maybe (HOPEFULLY!) you were never affected by child prostitution, and don't know anyone who was. But imagine it had happened to you, your sister, your girlfriend, your mother... What sort of resources would you want to be available to them? Well, they don't exist yet. So open up that wallet!!!

Please note that some of the language on The Wayne Foundation's website is... a little salty. Please take that in stride, and don't let it distract from what an incredible cause this is.

This is Kevin Smith's cause, and now it's mine. What's your cause?