By Greg Hitchcock on
Canadian-born Michelle Wright's latest record Everything and More is clearly one of the happiest, most filled-with-gratitude country-ish albums you’ll hear.
Ironically, it came together when the 45-year-old singer and
songwriter, who has sold more than two million records, gave up her ambition to become an even bigger country star after getting involved with World Vision in 2002, when she went to Zambia and saw the AIDS crisis first-hand.
In June of 2002, Wright traveled to Zambia to film a television special for World Vision, the child sponsorship organization. It was a life-changing experience for her; Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and in some areas over 60 percent of the Zambian population is HIV positive.
“It’s changed my life. I saw first-hand how privileged I am,” Wright says on her mobile just outside Saint John, NB.
“For a long time, all I could focus on was my career, fighting the good fight by selling a million records, paying the mortgage and the good people that work with me,” she said.
Wright said all that changed for her after she went to the African
relief camps and saw massive suffering on an unimaginable scale. After that experience, she said she had to rethink her whole mission in life.
“I still have a lot of responsibilities here but now what is really
important to me is coming from a different place in my heart,” Wright said.“It’s so important, I usually have a World Vision sponsorship table at all my concerts.”
Wright followed up her Zambian experience with a trip to Honduras for World Vision in June 2004. She now sponsors both a Zambian child and a Honduran child, and continues to help out World Vision whenever and wherever she can.
Wright is no stranger to charity. She was the Honorary Chairperson for “Operation C.A.T. Scan”, a fundraising campaign that raised almost two million dollars for St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chatham, Ontario (the hospital where Wright was born). The campaign raised money for the hospital to purchase its first C.A.T. Scan machine.
She was also Celebrity Spokeswoman for the 1997 Special Olympics World Winter Games and contributed to the Power of Peace CD celebrating the 50th anniversary of CARE.
Copyright © 2006 Look to the Stars
