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Jessica Biel: Celeb climb to Mt. Kilimanjaro
LOS ANGELES (AP) - September 24, 2009 The entertainers have signed on to climb the continent's highest
peak - Mt. Kilimanjaro, at more than 19,000 feet - to raise
awareness about the need for clean water worldwide.
The Summit on the Summit expedition, set for January, is the
brainchild of singer and producer Kenna. His father suffered from
waterborne diseases as a child in Ethiopia.
Biel, 27, said she was "astonished" to learn that more than a
billion people across the globe have no access to clean water.
"This is a basic human necessity that needs to be addressed
now," Biel said in a statement, adding that she's proud to climb
Kilimanjaro with the celebrity team "to help any way I can in
order to raise awareness toward the life-threatening clean water
crisis happening not only in Africa but around the world."
Justin Timberlake - who's been romantically linked with Biel -
may also be joining the climbers: He told GQ magazine earlier this
year that he was preparing for a major mountain climb.
Representatives for the climb declined to comment on the
28-year-old singer's possible participation.
Kenna said more celebrity climbers will be announced in the
coming months, and he urges fans to follow the climb online. A
donation as small as a dollar can provide 1,000 liters of clean
water to those who need it, he said.
"We wanted to make sure there was a way people knew this was an
issue and a way for them to do something about it," he said
Wednesday. "This is a global issue. It's not an Africa problem.
It's not a South America problem. It's a world, global problem. In
America, 11 million people go without clean water."
