BET Awards Recap~ Our Favorite Celebs and their Charities!

Last night Los Angeles was abuzz with the 2011 BET Awards which took place at the Shrine Auditorium. Here are some of our favorite celebs and a brief highlight on some of their charitable efforts. Congratulations to all of the winners!

It’s no secret that BCG just loves MJB! Check out our Feature on Mary’s FFAWN Foundation with partner Steve Stoute. We salute Mary on her efforts for the advancement of women everywhere!

Steve Harvey was the evenings well deserved Humanitarian Award recipient. It is through his Steve Harvey Foundation that he brings together young black men with positive role models, many celebrities through his annual Mentoring Weekend.  The Steve Harvey Mentoring Weekend for Young Men is a 4 day, 3 night program designed to teach the principles of manhood and while allowing young men the opportunity to envision and develop their dreams. One hundred young men, ages 13-18, from around the country attend the weekend of events. Additionally through a partnership with Disney, the Disney Dreamers academy  provides career-exploration and mentoring to high school teens. The program brings together 100 high school students from across the country for several days of interactive workshops and seminars, mentoring and inspiration focusing on careers and life enrichment. To learn more about Steve Harvey and his foundation visit Steve Harvey Foundation or stay posted on BCG!

Alicia Keys, our charity sweetheart! If you have been hip to BCG you know we love us some Alicia! Her Keep A Child Alive Foundation is doing some amazing things to fight HIV/AIDS. She is truly on a mission read more of A. Keys in our recent Article.

He is one of the most underrated celebs when it comes to charity and philanthropy. Few celebrities have really stepped up to the plate like Master P. Most of his efforts have been targeted towards disadvantaged youth specifically young people and those affected by disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. Did you know just in April Master P and Romeo provided LA middle school students computers . Audubon was one of the lowest-performing schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2010, recording some of the lowest test scores for the standardized state tests. The school’s community is well known for high crime rates and poverty. In 2011, however, the middle school raised its API by 74 points to 666! “Our goal is take kids off the streets, provide education, financial literacy, and hope for a real future,”said Master P of his efforts.

Jill is back, her new album “The Light of the Sun” dropped last Tuesday and on Friday the star hosted an event in honor of her latest album and her foundation Blues Babe. Jill Scott was one of the first celebs we featured on the site, check out the Article!

Nicki Minaj is undoubted one of the biggest female Hip-Hop artists of this decade, so naturally she took home the best female Hip-Hop artist award last night. Her Pink Friday album is the best selling album from a female Hip Hop album of all time. Many people don’t know that Nicki is also quite the philanthropist too. In 2010 to kick off the holiday season Minaj’s Pink Friday album partnered with the Susan G. Komen foundation in an effort to raise $100,000 for breast cancer research. “I fully support the efforts of Pink Friday and their goal of raising funds to support Susan G. Komen for the Cure and their charge to bring an end to breast cancer. I am pleased to be associated with the PINK FRIDAY initiatives and to raise awareness amongst fellow African-American women, who are often the hardest hit by breast cancer.” More recently, Minaj supported another effort with the Get Schooled campaign to keep children in school. She served as “Principal for a Day,” a reward given to the school for winning the Get MotivatED Challenge, a six-week competition aimed at improving students’ daily attendance nationwide. Throughout the challenge, both students and teachers collaborated to motivate students which resulted in the school’s daily attendance rate improving by 7 percent. Since the end of the challenge, Collins Academy has maintained an attendance rate at 92 percent, confirming its place at the top among all Chicago high schools. She spoke to the lucky students telling them how important it is to get an education; “If I didn’t have an education I would’ve probably signed a horrible contract. It’s important to be educated–and that goes a long way.”