Project Runway Season 8′s super favorite, Mondo Guerra-whose bold use of purple, black and white, and wise yet playful takes on couture style made him the series’ standout despite losing Season Eight to fly-over pseudo-boho, Chico-esque Gretchen Jones–has created a special shirt for World AIDS Day. Mondo declared his HIV+ status on national TV during a judging. The Sugar Skull shirt, which features calaveras from Dia de los Meurtos, combines his Latino culture with HIV/AIDS awareness; the slogan

vive y ama

on the other shirt translates to

Live and love

Day of the Dead imagery serves to remind us of those who have died, and to remember that though we live now, one day we too shall be dead, so we must celebrate life and cherish every moment.

The shirts are sold by Piperlime, one of the sponsors of Project Runway, and $20 from the sale of each shirt goes to AmFAR.

U2 frontman and anti-poverty activist Bono has returned home to Dublin after emergency back surgery performed in Munich just days after his 50th birthday. The band’s second phase of the mega-band’s 360 Degrees tour through the US scheduled to begin June 3 in Salt Lake City has been put on hold as he recuperates.

U2.com states that Bono was

admitted to a specialist neuro surgery unit in a Munich hospital, and is under the care of neurosurgeon Prof. Dr. Jorg Tonn and Dr Muller Wohlfahrt.

Over 400 hundred crew members and hundreds of thousands of fans in the US have put their concert plans on hold as Bono recovers.

For decades Bono has worked to alleviate poverty and eradicate HIV/AIDS in Africa. U2′s performance at the first LiveAid concert was a standout, and throughout the 80s the band also performed benefits for Amnesty International and to create jobs in Ireland, as well as recording songs for the very Special Christmas albums benefiting the Special Olympics. Since his father’s death, Bono has helped raise funds for the Irish Hospice Foundation.

Bono cofounded DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade Africa) an African relief fund; ONE, a grassroots campaign and advocacy organization committed to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease; and (RED), which partners with consumer goods to create jobs and raise funds to provide HIV/AIDS medication in Africa.

On their tours, the band stresses human rights and during their Elevation tour after 9/11 screened a memorial list of names of those killed.  To show thier support for New Orelans, the band played Super Bowl there. They rock, they are great guys and Godspeed to Bono for healing.

Bono at World Economic Forum

U2 singer and anti-poverty activist Bono has undergone emergency back surgery in Munich after an injury sustained during training for the next leg of U2′s world tour, a spokesperson for the band said, adding:

He was admitted to a specialist neuro surgery unit in a Munich hospital. Bono will spend the next few days there, before returning home to recuperate. Once his condition has been assessed further, a statement will be made regarding the impact on forthcoming tour dates.

The US leg of the 360 Degrees summer tour was due to start June 3 in Salt Lake City and continue to  Europe in August, kicking off in Turin.

Bono’s energetic performances are legendary, are are the band’s successes and good works.  Bono  himself has long been committed to debt relief and the eradication of poverty and AIDS in Africa, co-founding ONE and  (RED) as well as actively supporting the Irish Hospice Foundation. Godspeed in healing, Bono.

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

U2 singer and activist Bono met with President Barack Obama and showed off some dance moves in the Oval Office. He and Bob Geldof also interviewed POTUS for one of Canada’s leading newspapers Globe and Mail. Here’s their exchange about the upcoming G8:

Bono: You’re going to be in Canada in June for the G8. It’s not straightforward to get eight people to agree on anything, let alone eight countries. What do you think you can achieve?

Obama: At this year’s summit, we need to recommit ourselves to making serious and sustainable progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. We can, and should, celebrate the progress we’ve made, but we also need to be frank about where all of us – developed and developing countries alike – have fallen short.

The MDGs provide us with the goal posts; the challenge now is to make sure that we honour the aid commitments that are critical to development, and that we also look at:

• how we can bring additional sources of capital to the table;
• how we can foster the innovations that can be the game-changers in development;
• how developing countries can seize the moment by putting in place the right policies and institutions;
• and how, together, we can find new ways to accelerate progress in the years ahead.

* Sarah Palin unwittingly helped Planned Parenthood raise over $1 million during the presidential campaign when the e-mails asking for donations in her name spread virally in September and October. The e-mail directed people to Planned Parenthood’s Web site to donate in Palin’s name, and money went to the Planned Parenthood branch located in the same ZIP code as the giver.  Donors could then have that branch of Planned Parenthood send Palin a card announcing the gift.

When asked about the fund-raising campaign yesterday, Alaska’s Frost Lady responded:

I have boxes of thank-you notes from people associated with Planned Parenthood thanking me for the donations. Same with some anti-hunting groups, they’re doing the same thing right now. It’s political theater–it’s great theater I guess for some.

Planned Parenthood Alaska–which received $5000 in donations during the email push– said they would earmark the money to help women access birth control, and that the funds would not be used to fund abortions. Palin is vehemently opposed to abortion as well as Plan B (the morning-after pill), but told Katie Couric she was:

all for contraception..all for preventative measures that are legal and safe.

Planned Parenthood provides sex and STD education,  STD care, women’s gynecological health care, and birth control along with abortion counseling and services. In response to yesterday’s query about Planned Parenthood  Palin said:

But on the issue of Planned Parenthood and abortion, at least Planned Parenthood, officials there and, I, we agree on a mission here that we’d like to see fewer and fewer abortions. And I, embracing the culture of life, have perhaps a different approach in how I would like to see that goal reached.

Here’s a pro tip for Gov GILF: Abstinence doesn’t work.

*  To help parents meet their children’s educational needs, the supergroup Fleetwood Mac is auctioning off VIP tickets and meet-and-greets with Mick Fleetwood as a fundraiser. The auction benefits Hilltop Nursery School in Silver Lake, California, a parent-participation, cooperative pre-school founded over 50 years ago. Pairs of tickets for each show on the band’s Unleashed tour–plus face time with Fleetwood–are up for auction on eBay now and the charity auctions will continue throughout the tour.

*  Justin Timberlake joined Bill Murray, Ray Romano, Kevin James, and Michael Bolton on the golf course at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, helping to raise over $6 million dollars for a number of charities including schools, arts programs, services for the blind and senior and food banks.

*  In an essay in Elle magazine, Bono discusses a trip to Africa he took six years ago and the changes he has seen since there has been an increase in awareness and funding in HIV/AIDS care on the continent:

Our science and technology, it turned out, were more advanced than our conscience. We in the West had the means to save lives, but we lacked the resolve.

What can we do? Well, the short answer is: a lot. At the time of that trip, only 50,000 Africans had access to ARVs [anti-retrovial drugs]. That figure today is 2.1 million. That’s because a lot of people have been doing a lot of things, in Africa and all over the world. In the face of the AIDS emergency, we’ve got to gang up on the problem.

Bono points out the effect of conscious consumerism, specifically the (RED) brands–everyday consumer goods from coffee and wine to clothing and electronics–that benefit the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. Since its inception (RED) has raised $120 million for prevention and counseling programs as well as treatment, and is now the thirteenth biggest contributor to the Global Fund, giving more than some countries. Explains Bono:

The companies involved don’t mark up their products to get you to pay a premium. They take a piece of the profits from every (RED) thing you buy, and they use it to buy lifesaving medication for those who can’t afford it. 

Charities and non-profits are feeling the economic chill, and sadly–between the markets, Madoff and budget cuts–it looks like it’s going to get colder. Celebrities help draw attention and money (maybe giving some of their own cash in the process) to causes, hopefully helping to maintain or increase donations as the need for services is on the rise.