“I can’t  believe we have been invited to participate because our project was kinda little compared to all the other charities that have been competing, but we are also the first New Tampa charity to compete,” Patricia Murphy, of the woman’s club, wrote to New Tampa Patch when she learned Books For Troops would be included. “I seriously can’t contain my excitement.”

Murphy said the Books For Troops project began Oct. 1 and has collected more books than it had anticipated. While the girls underestimated the support from the community, there is not enough money to ship all of the books to U.S. troops serving overseas.

Read the full article here.

The ‘Hit The Lights’ singer and her band The Scene will perform at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, California on Friday, January 20.

Fan club tickets go on sale today (January 5) from 10am PT through her official website, with general public tickets then available from January 6 at 5pm PT through Ticketmaster.  Gomez teased the event on her Twitter account, writing: “Have some surprise guests lined up for the UNICEF charity show… can’t wait to share them with you.”

She added in a statement to her website: “Giving back has always been important to me. This concert allows me to connect with my fans in person which is one of the best parts of my job and to raise money for important causes at the same time. I can’t think of anything I would enjoy doing more.”

The 19-year-old singer and actress has been a UNICEF Ambassador since 2009, working to raise awareness of the issues facing vulnerable children across the world.

Keep up the good work Selena!

Read the full story here.

The charity uses music to help disadvantaged youngsters and claims Simon Cowell’s production company Syco had initially failed to enter into a discussion about the name clash.

It said that having a band with the same name would affect its future work.

The X Factor said the girls would announce a new name “in due course”.

Producers at X Factor said they knew the charity existed, although the band had originally settled on the name without being aware it was used elsewhere.

Read the full article here.

Each year, The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis holds the Great Sports Legends Dinner honoring sports figures and philanthropic heroes in order to bring awareness and support to the fund.

This year’s 26th Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York raised more than $10 million for paralysis research. One of the standout sports honorees was Kerrigan and Cause Celeb was lucky enough to speak with her about the event.

Read the full article and interview here.

If there are two questions that everyone from police to policy makers have asked over the last one hundred or so years of motoring, it’s these: “How do accidents happen?” and “How can we stop them from happening?”

With regards to the first, the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) in the UK has analysed some 700,000 fatal road accidents that occurred over a four year period between 2005 and 2009.

Their so-called Licensed to Skill report aims to identify the leading causes of automotive accidents in the UK, the results of which may surprise you. License to Skill project manager Neil Greig explains:

Read the full article here.

The future of cheques remains in the balance with definite plans needed to restore the public’s faith in the payment option, it has been warned.

Despite plans to abolish cheques being shelved back in July, Age UK said it had received growing numbers of complaints from the public about retailers refusing to accept them.

The charity had staunchly opposed proposals that would have seen cheques become obsolete in 2018, with the Payments Council eventually agreeing that the payment method will remain for ‘as long as they are needed’.

However, despite the success of its lobbying, Age UK has admitted to having mounting concerns that cheques are still in jeopardy.

Because of its fears, Age UK has written to the UK’s major banks and building societies asking them to set out
the steps they are taking to ensure that cheques continue to be widely accepted and easily available.

Ready the full article here.

CCS, with an enrollment of nearly 1,400, is one of the world’s leading art and design schools. It offers Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in 11 disciplines and Master of Fine Arts degrees in two majors.

Read the full article here.