Can Star Power Create Social Change
by: Brian Doherty
Celeb: Natalie Merchant, adult contemporary singer
Cause: Jamestown, N.Y. Boys and Girls Club
What she's done: Monetary donations and personal appearances
What celeb gets: A chance to give back to her own hometown
What cause gets: Money for teen pregnancy prevention and academic assistance programs; a chance to let potentially bored and troubled kids meet a local girl made good.
Connection between celeb and cause: Unlike most celebrities and their causes, Merchant has an organic connection with Jamestown Boys and Girls Club: She was a child member of the Jamestown Girls Club (before it merged with the Boys Club), says the club's executive director, Judy Moore.
Chance celeb will humiliate cause: Merchant's earnest singing persona fits snugly with the club's approach to life's travails. She's not apt to let them down.
What good came of this: Neither Merchant's publicists nor Moore will reveal the precise amount of her donations (Merchant's publicists don't want it to be seen as a publicity ploy), but Moore said it was enough to hire a new counselor. In 1997, Jamestown made news as the place where one man allegedly infected nearly a dozen local teen girls with HIV. Only time will tell if another counselor canprevent a similar incident.