LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — The Ronnie James Dio Stand Up & Shout Cancer Fund has teamed with The Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project (AEACP) to help each other's causes.
The charities will create one-of-a-kind guitars painted by the project's elephants in Thailand to raise money and awareness for both organizations.
Wendy Dio, president and founder of Stand Up & Shout, board chair Gloria Butler and medical director Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, along with Black Sabbath/Heaven & Hell bassist Geezer Butler and photographer Mark Weiss, are currently in Chiang Mai, Thailand, home to the AEACP, where the guitars are being painted.
The elephants of the Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project, whose paintings are now exhibited and sold in museums and galleries around the world and have been featured in National Geographic, are painting guitars donated by The ESP Guitar Company.
These painted guitars will be auctioned off with half of the proceeds going to AEACP and the other half going to SUAS.
The Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund is a privately funded nonprofit organization dedicated to cancer prevention, research and education. It was founded in memory of the late singer who died in 2010. The organization is collecting additional guitars donated by celebrated musicians for a larger fund-raising auction later this year.
The AEACP is dedicated to saving the diminishing number of Asian Elephants and to raise public awareness of the plight of Asian Elephants, according to the press release.
— Crystal Lynn Huntoon
