The conversations being generated by the death of Cory Monteith are important, but few seem to realize he was more than just a star who died of a drug overdose.
Since his death, there has been a significant amount of media focus on Cory Monteith’s struggles with addiction, which has brought some much needed attention to the broader issue of addiction and drug abuse within our society. However, there was another cause that Monteith was passionate about, and one that deserves as much attention as the issues of addiction and drug abuse have been getting, and could even be said to go hand in hand with both of those.
What was the cause that Monteith was so passionate about? Ending youth homelessness. He worked closely with Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Mobile, and Project Limelight, which is a free theater program designed to inspire “children to look inside themselves and discover their inner strengths, explore their hidden talents, develop confidence and form lasting friendships” as a way to reach homeless and struggling youth all over the world and offer help and support wherever and whenever they could.
Sir Richard Branson has this to say about Cory Monteith and the passion they both shared:
Cory Monteith was a beautiful soul. His awareness of his own struggles led him to reach out to young people all over the world with deep compassion and empathy to help them through their struggles.
He was deeply committed to ending youth homelessness. We’ll never forget watching him on the streets in Canada working with homeless teenagers and with organisations like Foyer in the UK, inspiring and giving a lifeline of hope to young people who were overwhelmed that he took the time to walk beside them to listen and share his own story.
It is with with deep sadness that we join with others to thank Cory for all he did to make a difference in other young people’s lives. We applaud his work to end youth homelessness and call upon all of us to continue this work to ensure that millions of young people no longer live on the streets.
We mourn the loss of a lovely human being with a big heart who moved mountains to make the world a better place. All of our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones.
With love, Richard, Jean Oelwang & the Virgin Unite team and Andrew Bridge & the Virgin Mobile team in Canada.
