Philanthropy
As a philanthropist, Mýa continues to devote her time and resources to various causes. From 1998 to 2001, she became the spokesperson for Secret to Self Esteem. In 2005, Mýa founded TMATF: The Mya Arts & Tech Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing disadvantaged youth growth and opportunity through arts & technology education, where she serves as both executive director and teacher. Mýa is also an advocate of breast cancer as her mother is a 12 year survivor. In 2006 and 2007, she collaborated with the Lifetime Television Network in the Stop Breast Cancer for Life campaign, recording "My Bra" a song sold on iTunes donating 100% of proceeds to breast cancer research.
In 2007, Mýa was also the internationally featured artist in Heatherette's Fashion Show for Lifeball in Vienna, Austria to fight Global AIDS, hosted a fundraiser for Skool'd to aid homeless LGBT youth, and advocated gay rights by opening the Out 100 Awards. In 2009 Mýa continued her philanthropic efforts by chairing the 2009 Operation Smile Event, participating in the literary project, If I'd Known Then: Women in Their 20s and 30s Write Letters to their Younger Selves, by Ellen Spraggins, and accepting an honoree award for her work with the NSAL and continued support of animal welfare. Mýa will continue her social efforts in 2010 by partnering with Cyndi Lauper's True Colors: Give A Damn PSA, NOH8 campaign, NSAL 2010, and assisting in varrlious HAITI relief efforts, among other philanthropic initiatives.
In 2012, Harrison will team up Koshie O to design some of the pieces that will be feature in the Spring/Summer 2013 collection. She is the first celebrity to be involved as a designer in The Koshie O.Woman project created by the African brand. A percentage of the profits from the sale of these unique capsule collection customized with a special print will be donated to the Mercy Corps, a global aid agency involved in helping populations stricken by tragic events in over 40 countries around the world.
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Famous quotes containing the word philanthropy:
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“Almost every man we meet requires some civility,—requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)