In March of 2015, Jared Padalecki kicked off his first ever fundraising campaign entitled, Always Keep Fighting. The campaign started on March 3 with the sale of shirts on Represent, with the name of the campaign over an image of the actor with his arms crossed. The proceeds from the sale went to the charity, To Write Love on Her Arms. Now, Padalecki is kicking off the second part of his Always Keep Fighting campaign.

The purpose of To Write Love on Her Arms, is to support individuals who are dealing with an assortment of mental health issues. These issues include addiction, anxiety, thoughts of self-harm, eating disorders, thoughts of suicide and depression. In his original message for the campaign, Padalecki talked about losing friends to suicide and even his own issues with depression. These are issues that he actually came face to face with while on the set of Supernatural. The actor spoke about his personal battle, as well as his experience losing friends, in an exclusive interview with People Magazine after his original campaign kicked off.

On April 13, Padalecki posted to his personal Facebook page, that he would be doing a part two to his successful Always Keep Fighting campaign. In the first teaser to his relaunch, the Supernatural actor posted a picture of himself wearing his season 10 jacket, standing under antlers. The message that went along with the picture hints that in his relaunch, he has a special guest helping him out this time. He also told his fans on Facebook to stay tuned, as he had a number of surprises in store for them.

Then, on April 15, the actor posted a video to his Facebook account, which ended up being a second teaser. The video was just shy of a minute long, and Padalecki once more teases at the relaunch of the campaign and a special guest. The actor says that it is better to show his announcement, versus telling it, and proceeds to remove his season 10 jacket. Then he looks down, almost in confusion, to say no, this is just his season three jacket. As he starts to unzip the next jacket, he stops to look at the shirt underneath, and says that since a different person is on that shirt, maybe he should wait until his friend is with him. Padalecki then tells the viewers that he will make the announcement with his friend the next day.

For his official announcement regarding relaunching his Always Keep Fighting campaign, Padalecki was back on Facebook, this time with a guest. The video which posted on April 16, included the actor’s Supernatural costar, Jensen Ackles. In the new Always Keep Fighting campaign on Represent, both actors appear on the shirt (the image is half of Padalecki’s face and half of Ackles’ face combined), with the words “Moose & Squirrel Say Always Keep Fighting.” This is an homage to the actors characters’ on the show, Sam “Moose” Winchester (Padalecki) and Dean “Squirrel” Winchester (Ackles).

Now, not only will this campaign help people with mental health, but the duo plans to work with another actor from the show, Misha Collins, and his own charity Random Acts. In the statement posted to the Represent page, the actors both acknowledge the success of the first campaign, and how much of a discussion was started. The statement mentions that “hundreds of thousands of dollars” have been raised in order to support a number of great charities. Those charities included not only the To Write Love On Her Arms organization, but also St. Jude’s, The Down Syndrome Connection, Wounded Warriors and Attitudes in Reverse, amongst others.

Not only was Padalecki’s original campaign a success financially for charity, but it also started discussions. People sat down and addressed some of the every day issues that everyone faces. Now, both Padalecki and Ackles want to offer support to more charities, whether they are small and need a helping hand in order to grow, or even if they have not gotten off the ground yet. Starting now, the two are hoping to support a variety of charities. This means not only is this second campaign important, but it also appears to be a starting point for future fundraising.

They want to continue to help the charities that they have already started helping, while also adding more worthy organizations into the mix. The goal is to help as many individuals as possible, so there is always a place for people who need assistance to go. Not only will these fundraisers help support mental health issues, but also addiction, depression and causes that they may not even be aware of as of yet.

In his second campaign kick off for Always Keep Fighting, Padalecki is once more trying to bring attention and support to issues of mental health and other worthy charities, but now with the support of his costar Ackles. The new campaign is set to run for two weeks starting on April 16. Not only are they offering shirts to raise money, but there are even phone cases being sold in support of a number of worthy causes. Links to both Represent campaigns can be found below.

By Kimberley Spinney

Sources:

Represent

Represent (2)

GuardianLV

Jared Padalecki on Facebook

Photos by vagueonthehow – Flickr License

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