Summit on the Summit

File this under Pretty Good!

Did you know that over 1 billion people don’t have access to clean water? In fact, every 15 seconds a child dies from a preventable water-related disease – that is the equivalent of crashing a 747 jet filled with children into a mountainside every 2 hours every day of the year.

Multi-talented musician Kenna is hoping to change that. The Ethiopian-born artist is taking a stand by climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa – the highest free standing mountain in the world with a peak of 19,430 ft – in order to raise awareness for the worldwide water crisis.

Kenna’s own father nearly died of a water-borne illness in his youth, so it’s an issue that he takes very personally. He won’t be alone on his trek, though — he’s bringing along friends like Lupe Fiasco and Jessica Biel,and a host of others will join him on the trip to the peak.

As you can imagine, you can’t simply put on your climbing shoes and wander up the over 19,000 feat that make up Africa’s highest elevation. It takes a great deal of training, and Kenna and his team are all hard at work.

We love the fact that Kenna is going to be joined by some great women on his Summit on the Summit (SOTS). Biel will be joined by Elizabeth Gore, Santigold and others on the climb.

Visit the SOTS site for more info and to follow along live when they start the trek January 7th.

Kenna also did a tune for his Summit On The Summit project called ‘Turn‘ which is worth checking out.

Love Serena Williams Style

December 23, 2008 – Lookin’ good. The former no. 1 Serena Williams did a photo shoot for this month’s celeb/style mag h monthly.  The pictures are accompanied by a conversation with Serena in which she discusses her recent travels, her new concepts in fashion and her continuing charitable endeavors.

Fab Serena just returned from Africa with news of her charitable work with B.A.S. (Build African Schools). Together they opened a secondary school named after her in the village of Matooni, about 70 miles southeast of Nairobi, Kenya, with state-of-the-art solar panels for power and computers donated from Hewlett-Packard. Her credo? ‘To whom much is given, much is required.’ Good for you, girl.  Can’t wait to see what 2009 brings (besides your memoir).

(via Tennis Served Fresh & Women’s Tennis Blog)