Oprah’s Big Give To Feature A Little Help From Jennifer Aniston

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by Michael dEstries February 24, 2008
Categories: Film/TV
Tags: , , , , , , , .

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Oprah Winfrey’s new reality show, Big Give, is getting some help from actress Jennifer Aniston. The show — which premieres March 2nd — challenges 10 people to help change the lives of complete strangers. At the end of the challenge, the contestants will be judged on their leadership, accomplishments, creativity and presentation with one “giver” being eliminated. The judges include “world-renowned “Naked Chef” and philanthropist Jamie Oliver, NFL star Tony Gonzalez, and Malaak Compton-Rock, charity founder and the wife of comedian Chris Rock.”

Aniston will join John Travolta, Jada Pinkett-Smith, tennis legend Andre Agassi, skateboarder Tony Hawk and racing star Danica Patrick in assisting the contestants with the various challenges. Judge Jaime Oliver couldn’t be more thrilled to work with her again — after meeting her and then-husband Brad Pitt at a private dinner party he helped cook for. From the article,

“‘Jennifer’s a friend of mine, she’s a beautiful, beautiful character,’ he tells OK!. ‘She was perfect to be a part of Oprah’s Big Give because that’s her personality — she’s a beautiful, giving person. It was lovely to have her involved, to have a friend be involved in the same show as me, and she comes along to one of the shows to pat the winners on the back.’”

No doubt that as with anything Oprah touches, this 8-episode series should be a big hit. Obviously, we really love the concept of helping out others in need and having Winfrey spearhead this effort is wonderful. Let’s hope there’s another season of giving in the works.

About Michael dEstries

Michael has been blogging since 2005 on issues such as sustainability, renewable energy, philanthropy, and healthy living. He regularly contributes to a slew of publications, as well as consulting with companies looking to make an impact using the web and social media. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his family on an apple farm.

View all posts by Michael dEstries →
  • kathy kaser

    Dear Oprah,

    I have always been heavy so in February 2001 I was anxious to have Bariatric surgery. My beginning weight was 540#. The gastric by-pass surgery went wonderful – I had no complications, the weight came right off. I went down to 330# – everything was going well except that I had a large pouch of extra skin in my abdomen that caused chafing and problems. In July of 2003 I had a panniculectomy (surgery to remove the excess skin of my abdomen). The doctor removed 25# of excess skin. I had trouble from the start. I was draining a lot from the incision – up to 1,000 ml in 24 hours. One night I woke up in the middle of the night and my incision had “dehissed” or come apart. I went back to the hospital, but contrary to what most people think, they do not resuture the incision. You have to heal from the inside out. That started a nightmare. I was hospitalized and wore a wound vaccum to keep the drainage off my my other skin. I developed MRSA (an infection that does not respond to most antibiotics). The original surgeon insisted that the only way I would get better was to continue with the wound vac. I finally was able to get out of the hospital (another doctor was on-call on a weekend and d/c’d me home). I went to another surgeon at OSU who found that I was severely anemic and malnutritioned due to the loss of all the protein in the drainage. I underwent blood transfusions and two more surgeries. He had to do a skin graft from my left thigh to cover the area where the incision dehissed. It was completely open at that point. It was probably the most painful thing I have ever gone through (the skin graft). Fortunately through good care I finally healed. However, it left me without a job and disfigured. I have enclosed two pictures of my incision.

    In August of 2006 I had a lumbar laminectomy which I developed two abcesses which required additional surgeries. Then I developed severe headaches which eventually were related to cervical stenosis (vertebrae in my neck) which required surgery. In November of 2007 I had an anterior cervical dissectomy, of course I did it the Dennis Kaser way (the hard way) and developed an extremely large hematoma (blood clot) from the surgery and almost died. I went back into surgery to remove the hematoma who is thinking of doing this procedure. However, the surgery to remove the skin did not go well for me. I just wanted to make sure people are very careful.I Just have to meet you oprah you are the only that can help me now.we have been through so much and I don’t know how more bad news we can take.i have a would do anything for my wife Kathy she needed a new Car so we had to trade both her car and my truck but she got her dream car back a Honda. I’am still disfigured but I still go on. The doctor have given me the ok to drive again but now I don’t have a pick up truck to drive.Oprah Please Help and my wife Kathy.

    And to the Producer please all I ask is that Oprah get’s a chance to read my letter please just give me that much.and if then she says know then I’ll leave you alone

    Dennis & Kathy Kaser

  • http://google amanda

    hi oprah my name is amanda and i am in six grade i am 13 and i would love to see your new show i am a big fan of you and in my room i have you all over thanks

  • Nixon Arauz

    to whom may it concern,

    I need your help from the Big Give. Hi my name is Nixon Arauz, I am the Sub-director of the Pathfinder club of the 7th Day Adventist Church of Cornerstone. I am High School Student And i dont have the utenciles the job to provide the entire church with that amount of money. We need and i dont ask for more to make this dream come true. We are a group of teen in this club our job is to assist the comunity and our greatest desire is to assist the community. But sometimes he have that desire and we cant because we dont have the money. we want to attend the the international Camporee Courage to Stand. If you can only extend us your hand and assist us with the economical aspects of the this camping experience that is approaching us soon, we will be more than happy if you extentd us that monetary help. thank you and may God bless you.

    Sincerely,
    Nixon R. Arauz

  • Rita Cash

    I am a retired school teacher hoping to help a bright young lady fulfill her dreams to become an Intensive Care Pediatrician. Her name is Brittany DeVault. We live in a rural sector of So. IN and thus far have not been able to gather the donations to get Brittany to her Conference. She has been nominated to attend the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine (NYLF/MED) and Congressional Student Leadership Conference (CSLC) Attending would give her the opportunity to practice diagnosis and treatment in a medical simulation, get hands-on training at a leading medical school, see the inner workings of a healthcare team, enter the challenging world of medicine and healthcare, attend conference that are held in cooperation with leading universities and medical schools, get accredited for 2 college credits: tuition includes 1 college credit and helps with college scholarships. Brittany’s first choice of universities would be Fordham University in New York and her second choice might be Georgetown University in Washington, DC. There are 10 day options for both universitiies. In order to attend Brittany must come up with $3,000.00. In our world that is a lot of money on such short notice. I donated $50. Just a drop in the bucket. I really want her to be able to go. Her mom is a single mom with many struggles. For a short time last May the family was pretty much homeless and as a substitute teacher her mother was also penniless for the summer. Her mom finally landed a job at the Humana Co. in Louisville, KY Through all her trials, Brittany I think is in line to be the valdictorian of her senior class. She won’t be able to go the Conferences without help and needs response by April 14, 2008!!!!!!! Sorry for the short notice. . . but I got to thinking about the Big Give and thought maybe you could squeeze in a Little one.
    Brittany’s address is : Brittany DeVault
    612 Catherine St.
    Palmyra, IN 47164
    her mom’s email is:schilmiller@insight.com

  • http://carreralori@yahoo.com Lori Carrera

    Hello Ophal

    I have a Hardship and I’m hard of hearing with 4 kids now my three kids lives with me I need a good car get aound please help us I live in Adelanto with no car it is hard for me to get around please we asked to help up please write back thank god bless you smile

  • Pingback: Oprah Cancels Big Give After Just One Season // Archives // ecorazzi.com :: the latest in green gossip

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