Six great reasons

What started out as a pop culture pastime, has now become a way to generate big money for charity thanks to actor Kevin Bacon, who just turned 49 this month.

"Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" began a decade ago as a simple formula to show Bacon's name could be easily linked to any other major notable name in television and motion pictures within the connecting measures of six or fewer other people's names associated with other film and television projects.

Now, Hanes, the underwear company that uses Bacon as a celebrity spokesman, has just announced a partnership with Bacon's www.SixDegrees.org, the Web site that builds on "the small-world phenomenon concept" to benefit charities and brings a social conscience to social networking.

To help add to the excitement for the join announcement, Hanes and SixDegrees also revealed Friday they will award up to $10,000 to the causes of the six people most successful at connecting with friends and family via the Internet to raise funds for their favorite charities.

Hanes also has created the official T-shirt of www.SixDegrees.org.

Hanes first connected with Bacon in 2006 when he appeared in the company's popular "Look Who" advertising campaign. As part of this new campaign, Hanes has a new limited edition www.SixDegrees.org T-shirt, available for $20 at www.Hanes.com and www.SixDegrees.org starting this weekend, and designed to encourage consumers to make their own connections and join the effort to support a wide variety of charities.

Bacon started www.SixDegrees.org in partnership with the nonprofit, Network for Good, and launched it at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007.

Bacon's Web site spotlights 50 celebrities' causes and allows noncelebrities to donate to or raise funds for their own favorite charities. Celebrities involved in the site include Bacon's wife Kyra Sedgwick (Natural Resources Defense Council), Nicole Kidman (UNIFEM), Ashley Judd (YouthAIDS), Tyra Banks (TZONE Foundation), Kanye West (Kanye West Foundation), Rosie O'Donnell (Rosie's For All Kids Foundation) and Jessica Simpson (Operation Smile). The site features an auction of celebrity-signed items to benefit charity.

"We started with a group of my celebrity friends in January, but the real celebrities with a cause have turned out to be people who aren't from Hollywood," said Bacon in a press statement Friday.

"In our first six months, for every celebrity involved, we've had 100 noncelebrities join, and this community has raised nearly $700,000 for thousands of charities with their badges. It goes to show that when we connect with others, our degrees of separation become smaller, and the world becomes a whole lot better. At first, I was mortified by the original game (played on college campuses). But I realized when you take me out of the equation, the idea of Six Degrees is powerful. That's why I started the site."

Visitors to SixDegrees.org are encouraged to create charity badges, which are fundraising widgets that people can design themselves to raise money for any of more than 1.5 million charities and place anywhere online -- including blogs, Web sites and social networks. The six people who receive the most number of donations from different people through their badge from now to Sept. 16 will receive up to $10,000 in matching funds for their charity, and anyone who receives at least six donations through their badge will receive the official SixDegrees.org T-shirt from Hanes.

"Hanes is thrilled to be working with Kevin again and commends him for using his celebrity status toward the good of others," said Sidney Falken, vice president, Hanes brand.

"We are proud to connect Hanes with Six Degrees, and by doing so, join in the effort of connecting all people, including our consumers, to support causes close to their hearts."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at ppotempa@nwitimes.com or 219.852.4327.

celebBirthdays

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