Canadians are Turning New Year's Resolutions into Dares to Raise Funds for HIV/AIDS in Africa

This New Year the Stephen Lewis Foundation challenges Canadians to join the Dare Campaign

TORONTO, Dec. 28, 2011 /CNW/ - This New Year's eve, Canadians across the country are turning their New Year's resolutions into dares as part of the Stephen Lewis Foundation's Dare Campaign, which raises funds to support community-based organizations that are turning the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Canadians are making their New Year's resolutions more meaningful and easier to keep by turning their resolutions into dares.

Hundreds of Canadians have already signed-up and registered online:

• Murray Foster of Great Big Sea is resolving to write and record a song a day for the month of January. By donating to Murray's dare you can be the first to hear these exclusive songs.
  
  
• Brian Finch, publisher/creator of e-zine Positivelite.com and writer for Fab Magazine, is daring to humiliate himself for Africa with a night of solo stand-up comedy
  
  
• For the second year, Bunchfamily.ca is challenging parents across North America to partake in the Dare Campaign. Bunchfamily.ca will be joined by parents and kids across Canada in showing their solidarity with every stroke of a crayon. With Dare to Draw, parents will encourage their kids to draw a picture a day for the month of January.
  
  
• Discovery Channel's Andrew Younghusband, is biking from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa aiming to raise $10,000
  
  
• Prita Chhabra, Indo-Canadian singer/songwriter, is daring to return to her first job, dressing up as a Disney character outside of the Disney Store.
  
  
• Toronto's Katherine Magee is climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and daring to raise $7,500 along the way.
  
  
• Dalhousie Dares team from Halifax, Nova Scotia is resolving to make January a month full of dares.

This is the third year of the Stephen Lewis Foundation's Dare Campaign. In the first two years the campaign raised more than $1.3 million.  For more information and to watch videos on the campaign visit: darecampaign.ca.

About the Stephen Lewis Foundation
The Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF) supports community-based organizations that are turning the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa. They provide care to women who are ill and struggling to survive; assist orphans and other AIDS affected children; reach heroic grandmothers who almost single-handedly care for their orphan grandchildren; and sustain associations of people living with HIV and AIDS. Since 2003, SLF has supported more than 700 community-level initiatives in 15 sub-Saharan countries. To learn more, visit www.stephenlewisfoundation.org

For further information:

For media inquiries, please contact:
Keely Wallace
Dare and Media Organizer
[phone], ext. 306
[e-mail]