On September 24th, David, Jeff, Pierre and Chuck got together in Montreal with a couple of charitable people who recently supported the Simple Plan Foundation and had dinner at the Le Muscadin restaurant. Yesterday Pierre published a picture of them all together and you can now check it in the gallery:
This morning, Jeff Stinco from Simple Plan had to wake up a little bit early, because he was invited to the taping of his friend’s Patrick Langlois’ programme that he’s been co-hosting since September – the morning show called Ça Commence Bien on the Canadian TV station “V”. Patrick wanted to discuss mostly Jeff’s new Italian restaurant Mangiafoco that he opened this July and Jeff even tried to teach Patrick how to make a real Italian pizza.
Check out two photos from the set of Ça Commence Bien in the gallery:
Scarlett, who was along with her friends and her sister chosen as the winner of the song-writing contest that was organised by the candy company Wonka (where their task was to rewrite the lyrics to Jet Lag by Simple Plan so that it features references to the products of this company), sent me a couple of pictures from the recording of this version of the song, which she attended in August – with all the members of Simple Plan in the studio in Canada.
Check out the pictures in the gallery:
Thanks to Sab, you can now check out a scan from a Canadian free newspaper called “24h”, which recently included a page about Jeff’s recent involvement with the presentation of a Simple Plan Foundation/GRIS grant to the La Rive high school, for their efforts to stop homophobia and for the children to be more tolerant to different sexual orientations. The scan of the press and the translation of the article into English (thanks Sab, again) can be seen below, and also make sure to check out the pictures from the event for a couple more of Jeff.
“Groupe de recherche et d’intervention sociale” (GRIS) launched yesterday its 9th found-raising which theme was “L’homophobie, ca suffit !” (Homophobia, enough!) at the school Atelier, situated in Ahuntsic area, in Montreal. The volunteers from GRIS visited 199 schools last year where they told their personal stories about their sexual orientation.
“About 23 000 young people had the opportunity to hear some genuine and moving testimonies and they left the room with a little less prejudices than before” said the comedian and GRIS’ spokesman Vincent Bolduc.
“These young people are happy that we can talk about homosexuality and bisexuality easily, without any taboo” said the comedian Macha Limonchik, other spokesman for GRIS. “They are happy to be able to understand what it is to open their mind a little more. When we ask questions to the others, we slowly notice that we are not that different one from the others.” According to GRIS, after one hour of talks, young people declare enjoying their experience. The changing is noticeable in the classroom’s atmosphere.
GRIS-Montreal aims at collect 160 000$ with this year’s campaign.
Le campaign’s launch was the opportunity to give the GRIS-Fondation Simple Plan price to the secondary school from Laval for their Homophobia Against Committee.
Here during the ceremony, Jeff Stinco, guitarist from Simple Plan, also greeted the project “Adoption d’un prisonnier politique” (adoption of a politic prisoner). This project which every classes took part of, permits to a Cameroonian politic prisoner to get letters and drawings every month.“The politic prisoner that we choose to adopt has been imprisoned for 3 years because of his homosexuality” explained 11yo Judith Lapierre, member of the project. “It moved us so much, because we think that this is unfair. Everyone has the right to their own sexual orientation. We can’t jail someone for that.”
The youth UNESCO committee, sponsored by the teacher Sylvie Deraiche, meets almost every month to discuss and set up activities to make people aware about homophobia and else.
For the past three years, the organisation GRIS Montreal (that’s main objective is to demistify homosexuality and to develop self-esteem among those young people who are questioning their sexuality), has been awarding those high schools and elementary schools in the Quebec area, who have made remarkable efforts in this matter.
This year, GRIS presented the award today, on September 18th, to the “La Rive” high school – most notably for the unique initiative taken by its students and faculty members to demystify homosexuality and bisexuality. Along with the prize, the school also received a $2 000 scholarship from Simple Plan Foundation (that has been a supporter of GRIS for many years), represented at the event by Simple Plan’s lead guitarist Jeff Stinco.
One of the main objectives of Simple Plan Foundation is to support organizations that work with young people who face various problems. According to GRIS “For this reason, the Foundation supports the work of GRIS and acknowledges that dropping-out of school, depression and suicide, are (according to many experts) direct consequences of homophobia in schools.”
“I hope that someday we stop fearing our diversity and embrace it instead. Whether you are gay, black, white, handicapped… We are all the same,” tweeted Jeff Stinco after the event.
Below you can check out six pictures of Jeff, attending GRIS’ presentation at the La Rive high school:
