David Archuleta Fans Create Pathway For Charity In India

A Pathway of Hope near Chennai, India, connects an American Idol pop star with the children of leprosy-affected individuals. David Archuleta’s fans have purchased 150 engraved, granite bricks for a pathway at Rising Star Outreach campus and school, a project to raise up India’s outcast families.

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The pathway and other campus buildings were dedicated recently, and Archuleta has told Becky Douglas, the founder of Rising Star Outreach, he will see her soon to walk the walk inspired by his music.

“When I read the stories, it was so touching,” Archuleta said. “They’re banished from their homes and really misunderstood. And their families are cast out with them. It’s sad that there are people out there who are forgotten.”

Archuleta adopted the project after his dentist, Scott McGavin, pledged to take dental care to the families of Rising Star Outreach. Soon Angels for a Cause, an umbrella website that raises funds for Archuleta-endorsed charities, featured Rising Star Outreach and Dr. McGavin’s goal to purchase portable dental equipment. In 2009, McGavin and a team took the equipment and their expertise to the children and adults who had never had dental care.

Other projects followed. To date, AFAC has raised more than $35,000 to support Rising Star Outreach initiatives, the most recent being The Pathway of Hope. Established by a fan, Cheryl Wheeler, AFAC was inspired by an old family friend of the Archuleta family, Todd Pennington, who started an Archuleta fan site in 2004, three years before American Idol made the singer an international star. The site was re-established after AI as www.archuletafanscene.com.

And a twitpic from AFAC!

Read the entire article at Looktothestars.org.