Cindy Crawford

Cindy Crawford is more familiar with pediatric cancer than you might realize. The supermodel’s younger brother, Jeff, was a leukemia patient at the University of Wisconsin Children’s hospital in 1975. He died just before he turned four years old.

This past weekend, Cindy made some appearances in Madison, Wisconsin, to raise awareness of pediatric cancer. She’s the honorary chair of Kids with Courage, a group that reunites childhood cancer survivors and their families. This year marked the fourth reunion. Cindy took part in the three previous reunions in 1993, 1998, and 2003.

According to the University of Wisconsin, Cindy has been contributing her time and her money to its Pediatric Oncology program for almost two decades. She said, “When I was able to start raising money and awareness, I was able to choose where do I want to give back in my life and this just was the first place that popped into my head.”

The Kids with Courage reunions not only allow patients who survived childhood cancer to see each other again, but also allows the families of children who did not survive to see the children and families they spent time with in the hospital when their child was sick. And, former patients get to see their old doctors, which is great for both of them.

Photo courtesy of askmen.com

Supermodel Cindy Crawford is teaming up with PUR to encourage everyone — supermodel and mere mortal alike — to make their water consumption just a little greener.

This May, Cindy and PUR Water Filtration will launch Thirsty for Change, a campaign to encourage Americans to drink filtered tap water rather than the bottled water so many of us rely upon. Every year, more than 38 billion plastic water bottles end up in land fills. The good news is, Americans are drinking lots of water, but the bad news is that it’s causing a huge amount of waste.

The supermodel will do her part by designing a stylish reusable water bottle and donating all proceeds from the sales to Children’s Safe Drinking Water, a program that provides drinking water to needy kids across the globe. She’s also giving out some advice for other ways the average person can live in a more eco-friendly manner, like buying locally and unplugging unused electronic devices.

What’s great about having Cindy as a spokesperson for Thirsty for Change is that she acknowledges that not all changes are easy, but says, “… changes that fit easily into our hectic routine are the ones that are going to stick.” I’m sure we can all agree with that.

To learn more and to read the rest of Cindy’s green tips, click here.

Photo courtesy of askmen.com